An astronaut removes the High Resolution Spectrograph in preparation for a new instrument during the second servicing mission in 1997. Hubble’s science instruments are large and complex. The telescope can hold four telephone-booth sized instruments and four piano-sized instruments.
The High Resolution Spectrograph was replaced by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which has more expansive capabilities. White light is made up of many colors. Spectrographs break incoming light up into its various parts so that the composition, temperature, motion, and other chemical and physical properties of the object that produced it can be analyzed.
