Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer: Difference between revisions

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NICMOS was conceived and designed by the NICMOS Instrument Definition Team centered at [[Steward Observatory]], [[University of Arizona]]. NICMOS is an imager and spectrometer built by [[Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.]] that allows the HST to observe [[infrared light]], with [[wavelength]]s 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 256x256 pixel photodiode array of [[HgCdTe|Hg_0.554Cd_0.446Te]] [[infrared detectors]] bonded to a sapphire substrate, read out in four independent 128x128 quadrants.

NICMOS is also the name of the 256x256 pixel imaging sensor developed by [[Rockwell]] International Science Center (Now [[Teledyne]] Imaging Sensors)

NICMOS was installed on Hubble during its second servicing mission in [[1997]] along with the [[Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph]], replacing two earlier instruments.