Why were instruments like NICMOS necessary for constructing the HUDF image using Hubble?
Answer
Light from distant objects is redshifted out of the visible range.
The incorporation of instruments like the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) in the HUDF construction was necessitated by the physics of an expanding universe. As light travels across the vast distances from the most remote objects, it is stretched by the expansion of space. This stretching effect, known as redshift, moves the light waves toward the longer, redder end of the spectrum, often shifting them entirely out of the range visible to standard optical cameras and into the infrared spectrum, which these specialized instruments were designed to capture.
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