Credit far
NICMOS images: NASA, the
NICMOS Group (STScI, ESA), and the
NICMOS Science Team (University of Arizona)
Soummer's team took Lafreniere's method a step further and used 466 images of reference stars taken from a library containing over 10 years of
NICMOS observations assembled by Glenn Schneider of the University of Arizona.
In another study,
NICMOS peered through the dusty disk of the spiral galaxy NGC 4013 to discover what appears to be a ring of newborn stars at the galaxy's core.
"We've shown that
NICMOS is more powerful than previously thought for imaging planets," said Lafreniere.
Scientists should know by mid-April if
NICMOS is back in action, and at about that time, they hope to produce the first useful images from the ACS.
* Replaced Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph with Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (
NICMOS)
In that mission, astronauts attached a refrigerator to
NICMOS to revive it (see p.
Becklin of the University of California, Los Angeles and their colleagues embarked on a search using
NICMOS to find planets or disks around young stars.
"The scientifically interesting point is the important role
NICMOS is playing...
And by using infrared detectors such as Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (
NICMOS), astronomers studying the new Ultra Deep Field believe they already have found even more distant galaxies, some perhaps hailing from a time only 300 million years after the Big Bang.
The cooler, which operates mechanically rather than relying on frozen nitrogen or some other ice, would extend the lifetime of Hubble's infrared camera,
NICMOS. Soon after the camera was installed in 1997, the dewar that houses it and maintains its frigid operating temperature developed a leak (SN: 5/3/97, p.
The LBTI will have 10 times the resolution of Hubble's near-infrared
NICMOS camera, which has been used to look for substellar companions.