The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) is a scientific instrument for infrared astronomy, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), operating from 1997 to 1999, and from 2002 to 2008. Images produced by NICMOS contain data from the near-infrared part of the light spectrum.
Near Infrared Camera And Multi-object Spectrometer Nicmos
NICMOS was conceived and designed by the NICMOS Instrument Definition Team centered at Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, USA. NICMOS is an imager and spectrometer built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. that allows the HST to observe infrared light, with wavelengths between 0.8 and 2.4 micrometers, providing imaging and slitless spectrophotometric capabilities. NICMOS contains three near-infrared detectors in three optical channels providing high ( 0.1 arcsecond) resolution, coronagraphic and polarimetric imaging, and slitless spectroscopy in 11-, 19-, and 52-arcsecond square fields of view. Each optical channel contains a 256256 pixel photodiode array of mercury cadmium telluride infrared detectors bonded to a sapphire substrate, read out in four independent 128128 quadrants.[1]
Despite this, the combination of Hubble's mirror and NICMOS offered never-before seen levels of quality in near-infrared performance at that time.[5] Dedicated infrared telescopes like the Infrared Space Observatory were ground-breaking in their own way, but had a smaller primary mirror, and were also out of service at the time of NICMOS installation because they ran out of coolant. NICMOS later overcame this problem by using a machine chiller like a refrigerator, which allowed it operate for years until it went offline in 2008.
NICMOS was noted for its performance in Near-infrared space astronomy, in particular its ability to see objects through dust.[5] It was used for about 23 months after it was installed, its life limited by set amount of cryo-coolant, and then later it was used for several years when a new cryo-cooler was installed in 2002.[5] NICMOS combined near infrared performance with a large mirror.[5]
ACS is actually a team of three different cameras: the wide field camera, the high-resolution camera, and the solar blind camera. It outperforms all previous instruments flown aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, primarily because of its expanded wavelength range. Designed to study some of the earliest activity in the universe, ACS sees in wavelengths ranging from far ultraviolet to infrared.
The Hubble Space Telelscope has its infrared vision back. The space telescope has been blind at infrared wavelengths since 1999 when NICMOS, or the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, ran out of cryogen. Then last March astronauts installed a closed-cycle cryocooler that will keep the key instrument operating indefinitely.University of Arizona astronomy Professor Rodger I. Thompson, Edward Cheng of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and Daniela Calzetti of the Space Telescope Science Institute released the first post-servicing images from NICMOS on, June 5, at the American Astronomical Society national meeting in Albuquerque, N.M."Insiders tell us the first new images, just gathered, are spectacular," said AAS press officer Stephen Maran, who organized the news conference.NICMOS is a $100 million space instrument conceived, designed and built by the University of Arizona under contract from the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Thompson, principal investigator for NICMOS, spearheaded the effort.Thompson and his colleagues at the UA and other universities first proposed NICMOS for the Hubble Space Telescope in 1984. UA team members include John Hill, Frank Low, Donald McCarthy Jr., Marcia Rieke (deputy principal investigator), Glenn Schneider, and Erick Young.Rieke, UA astronomer Rob Kennicutt, and senior research associate Erich Karkoschka of the UA Lunar and Planetary Lab are among 28 researchers who have won observing time in the new cycle of NICMOS operations.After NICMOS was installed onboard the HST during the second servicing mission in February 1997, it made observations of newly forming stars and regions containing the farthest and faintest galaxies ever imagined. It revealed as never before planets in our solar system and possible planets beyond. It observed a supernova that confirmed our universe is accelerating, rather than slowing down, as it expands. It achieved nearly all its scientific objectives before 1999, when coolant necessary to chill NICMOS' infrared detectors was depleted.NASA developed the new mechanical cryocooler that cools NICMOS to temperatures around 75-86 degrees Kelvin (between minus 198 degrees and minus 187 degrees Celsius, or minus 325 degrees and minus 304 degrees Fahrenheit).
Professor Thompson's primary area of research is the theory and measurement of fundamental constants such as the proton to electron mass ratio and the fine structure constant. He uses the measured constraints on the time variation of the constants to establish limits on the variation of basic physics parameters such as the Quantum Chromodynamic Scale, the Higgs Vacuum Expectation Value and the Yukawa couplings. A new area of research is using rolling scalar field beta functions to systematically characterize the wide range of alternative cosmologies and to establish the bounds on their parameter space imposed by the stability of the fundamental constants. Professor Thompson is the Principal Investigator for the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer, NICMOS on HST and has been active in using NICMOS on HST to do high redshift cosmology. He has measured the star formation history of the universe to redshift 6 and has determined the primary sources of the near infrared background and residual fluctuations. He is also working on designing a photonic lantern upgrade to the very high resolution spectrometer, PEPSI, on the Large Binocular Telescope.
The first near-infrared image of a dust ring around a young, nearby star has been taken by the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The image may give astronomer Glenn Schneider and his colleagues a new look at early planet formation (Astrophys. J. 513, L127- L130; 1999).
I am an astrophysicist at the University of Arizona who has used near infrared observations to better understand how the universe works, from star formation to cosmology. Some 35 years ago, I was given the chance to build a near infrared camera and spectrometer for Hubble. It was the chance of a lifetime. The camera my team designed and developed has changed the way humans see and understand the universe. The instrument was built at Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, under our direction.
The near infrared, however, has an even easier time passing through dust than the red optical light. NICMOS can look into star formation regions with the superior image quality of Hubble to determine the details of where the star formation occurs. A good example is the iconic Hubble image of the Eagle Nebula, also known as the pillars of creation.
When NICMOS was added into the HST in 1997 NASA had no plans for a future infrared space mission. That rapidly changed as the results from NICMOS became apparent. Based on the data from NICMOS, scientists learned that fully formed galaxies existed in the universe much earlier than expected. The NICMOS images also confirmed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than slowing down as previously thought. The NHDF infrared images were followed by the Hubble Ultra Deep Field images in 2005, which further showed the power of near infrared imaging of distant young galaxies. So NASA decided to invest in the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, a telescope much larger than HST and completely dedicated to infrared observations.
On Hubble, a near infrared imager was added to the third version of the Wide Field camera which was installed in May of 2009. This camera used an improved version of the NICMOS detector arrays that had more sensitivity and a wider field of view. The James Webb Space Telescope has much larger versions of the NICMOS detector arrays that have more wavelength coverage than the previous versions.
The James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled to be launched in March 2021, followed by the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope, form the bulk of future space missions for NASA. These programs were all spawned by the near infrared observations by HST. They were enabled by the original investment for a near infrared camera and spectrometer to give Hubble its infrared eyes. With the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers expect to see the very first galaxies that formed in the universe.
One new device will extend Hubble's vision into the near infrared. Chilled by a 230-pound block of nitrogen ice, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) will image galaxies as young as 5 percent of the universe's age, instead of today's limit of about 10 percent. 2ff7e9595c
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