Cosmic Origins Spectrograph

Planetarium · 28 mins

* Appropriate for grades 8th - 12th Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS) is an instrument installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009 during Servicing Mission 4. The full dome planetarium show "Cosmic Origins: Spectrograph" talks about the Hubble C.O.S. instrument itself, its functions and purposes, and discusses the nature of light, spectroscopy, the use of quasars as background light sources, material identification by spectrum, and the cycling of material within and surrounding galaxies. The COS show goes into detail on some of basics of spectroscopy at a high level, and touches on the processing of galactic and extragalactic gas. The full dome planetarium show Cosmic Origins Spectrograph was produced by Fiske Planetarium in Colorado, with scientific input from professional astronomers in their academic department to ensure accuracy.