Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph


The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph was an ultraviolet spectrograph installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during its original construction, and it was launched into space as part of that space telescope aboard the Space Shuttle on April 24, 1990. The instrument is named after 20th century rocket pioneer Robert H. Goddard.
One of the results was the discovery of tenuous atmosphere for Jupiter's moon Europa in 1995. The gas was determined to be mostly of molecular oxygen. The surface pressure of Europa's atmosphere is 0.1 μPa, or 10−12 times that of the Earth.
An example GHRS use was to observe the local interstellar medium in the direction towards Capella.
GHRS was removed during February 1997 as part of the NASA Space Shuttle mission STS-82, and its position in HST was used by new instrument. That mission was also called SM-2 for Servicing Mission 2. During SM2, two new instruments were installed, the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The Faint Object Spectrograph was the other original instrument that was replaced during that mission.

GHRS facts

A technical description of the construction and operation of the GHRS can be found in the GHRS instrument handbook.