Advanced Camera for Surveys in GSFC Clean Room (2002)

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is photographed here in NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Clean Room readying for its 2002 installation. ACS is a technologically-advanced, third-generation science instrument aboard Hubble that produces large, detailed images of our universe. The ACS replaced Hubble's Faint Object Camera (FOC) during Servicing Mission 3B. It is regarded as one of Hubble's workhorse cameras. Upon installation, ACS doubled the observatory's field of view and increased its potential for new discoveries by a factor of ten.

ACS sees in wavelengths from the far ultraviolet to visible light, making it capable of studying some of the earliest activity in the universe.

ACS contains a trio of cameras: the wide field camera, the high-resolution camera, and the solar blind camera. In 2007, an electrical short shut down all but the solar blind camera. Astronauts repaired ACS during Servicing Mission 4 in 2009, and only the high-resolution camera could not be returned to life.

Each camera performs a specific function. ACS's wide field camera conducts broad surveys of the universe. Astronomers use it to study the nature and distribution of galaxies, which reveal clues about how our universe evolved.

The solar blind camera blocks visible light to enhance ultraviolet sensitivity, focusing on hot stars or planets radiating ultraviolet wavelengths.

The high-resolution camera took detailed pictures of the inner regions of galaxies. It searched neighboring stars for planets and planets-to-be, and took close-up images of the planets in our own solar system. The high resolution of one of Hubble's newest instruments, Wide Field Camera 3, will be able to make up for some of the loss of this particular camera.