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Credit:   
STS-82 Crew,  
NASA  
  
  
Explanation:
The Hubble Space Telescope's  
second servicing mission has been completed.  Every few years,  
the telescope is visited by a Space Shuttle  
to allow astronauts  
to switch old instruments for new.  This time, the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph  
and Faint Object  
Spectrograph  
were replaced by the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer  
and the Space  
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph.  
 These new instruments will act like eyes sharing the 2.4-meter  
telescope mirror with the remaining instruments: the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2  
and the Faint Object  
Camera.  
 The Hubble Space Telescope  
can take clearer pictures  
than ground based telescopes because its images are not blurred  
by the Earth's atmosphere.  
  
Pictured in the final phases of a space walk from the second  
servicing mission, astronauts  
Mark Lee (right) and  
Steven Smith work on  
HST  
while perched on the Shuttle's remote manipulator arm.  
  
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Hubble space telescope
Publications with words: Hubble space telescope
See also:

