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COSTAR

The image depicts the COSTAR (Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement), a refrigerator-sized box installed in the Hubble Space Telescope during its 1993 servicing mission to replace an original science instrument.

The Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, installed in Hubble during the 1993 servicing mission. A refrigerator-sized box that replaced one of the original science instruments, COSTAR deployed five pairs of dime-sized mirrors on mechanical arms into the light path, each pre-figured to cancel the primary mirror's spherical aberration. It was removed in 2009, by which time every remaining instrument had built-in corrective optics.

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