The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) was a space telescope designed to make

spectroscopic Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets the electromagnetic spectra that result from the interaction between electromagnetic radiation and matter as a function of the wavelength or frequency of the radiation. Matter wav ...

observations in the

far-ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nanometer, nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 Hertz, PHz) to 400 nm (750 Hertz, THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than ...

region of the

electromagnetic spectrum The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of frequencies (the spectrum) of electromagnetic radiation and their respective wavelengths and photon energies. The electromagnetic spectrum covers electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging from ...

. It was flown into orbit on the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

and operated from the Shuttle's payload bay on two occasions: in December 1990, as part of Shuttle mission

STS-35 STS-35 was the tenth flight of Space Shuttle ''Columbia'', the 38th shuttle flight, and a mission devoted to astronomical observations with ASTRO-1, a Spacelab observatory consisting of four telescopes. The mission launched from Kennedy Spac ...

, and in March 1995, as part of mission

STS-67 STS-67 was a human spaceflight mission using that launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida on 2 March 1995. Crew Mission highlights Ultraviolet Imaging Experiments Astro-2 was the second dedicated Spacelab mission to conduct astronom ...

. HUT was designed and built by a team based at

Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hem ...

, led by Arthur Davidsen. The telescope consisted of a 90 cm main mirror used to focus ultraviolet light onto a spectrograph situated at the

prime focus A reflecting telescope (also called a reflector) is a telescope that uses a single or a combination of curved mirrors that reflect light and form an image. The reflecting telescope was invented in the 17th century by Isaac Newton as an alternat ...

. This instrument had a spectroscopic range of 82.5 to 185 nms, and a spectral resolution of about 0.3 nm. It weighed 789 kilograms (1736 pounds). HUT was used to observe a wide range of astrophysical sources, including

supernova remnants A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar mat ...

active galactic nuclei An active galactic nucleus (AGN) is a compact region at the center of a galaxy that has a much-higher-than-normal luminosity over at least some portion of the electromagnetic spectrum with characteristics indicating that the luminosity is not prod ...

cataclysmic variable In astronomy, cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) are stars which irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state. They were initially called novae (), since ones with an outburst brightness visible to ...

stars, as well as various planets in the

Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar S ...

. During the 1990 flight, HUT was used to make 106 observations of 77 astronomical targets. During the 1995 flight, 385 observations were made of 265 targets. HUT was co-mounted with WUPPE, HIT, and BBXRT on the Astro-1 mission (1990) and with just WUPPE and HIT on Astro-2 (in 1995). HUT is on display at the Smithsonian

National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the Nat ...

in Washington, D.C. in the United States.

References

External links

HUT webpage
at Johns Hopkins University {{Space observatories Space telescopes Crewed space observatories Ultraviolet telescopes Space Shuttle program Space hardware returned to Earth intact