![]() These observations revealed new findings about planet formation and the evolution of stars, including dead stars called white dwarfs and failed stars called brown dwarfs. Spitzer began by observing the composition of dust throughout space, the building blocks of planets and stars and even the chemical composition of comet dust. Once it launched, Spitzer enabled scientists to make discoveries not only in our own backyard of the solar system but also stretching back into the distant universe. And it was the first telescope with a passive cooling design that had no moving parts – another reason it could be extended so many times, according to Robert Hurt, Spitzer visualization scientist. All of the surfaces facing away from the sun are flat black, which radiates heat, and all of those facing the sun are silver, to reflect heat away. ![]() The smart design of the telescope, and its distance from Earth, helped keep the telescope cool. This way, scientists could still observe in two infrared wavelengths. In 2009, Spitzer ran out of helium coolant, sending it into a “warm” mission – which was still about negative 408 degrees Fahrenheit. During its cold mission, which lasted for the first five years, it operated at negative 450 degrees Fahrenheit. The telescope was also kept cold so it wouldn’t generate infrared heat. Illustrators get us up close with 'Tatooine' and other alien planets The Kepler-16 binary star system creates a double sunset like the one on Luke's home world Tatooine. It was the first telescope in this kind of orbit because it allowed the mission to avoid infrared radiation from Earth. Spitzer is a cold telescope in an orbit that trails Earth, both of which enabled it to be so sensitive to detecting infrared light and radiation. The telescope was named in honor of the late astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer, Jr., a proponent of space telescopes. Spitzer was designed to observe “the cold, the old and the dusty.” This included objects too cold to emit visible light incredibly distant galaxies and stars and into the very dust of the universe’s building blocks. It’s been referred to by astronomers as “the little telescope that could,” at times overshadowed by the Hubble Space Telescope and its splashy images.Įvery person who worked on the Spitzer mission, from the concept phase in the 1970s or once the telescope launched in 2003, says the same thing about it: The telescope worked perfectly. And although the mission itself is ending, the archive of data it provided can be mined for decades, said Michael Werner, Spitzer project scientist. “Spitzer has been a pathfinder of stars for us to investigate later,” said Spitzer astrophysicist Farisa Morales. It will also be able to follow up on discoveries made by Spitzer. NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be our new infrared eye in the sky when it launches next year. Spitzer detects infrared light, while Hubble captures visible and UV light Compton was designed for gamma rays and Chandra sees X-rays. Together, they provide a detailed look at the universe. Spitzer is in NASA’s Great Observatories family, a collection of telescopes that operate at different wavelengths. ![]() Spitzer Space Telescope gazes at old friend the Tarantula Nebula The red regions indicate the presence of particularly hot gas, while the blue regions are interstellar dust that is similar in composition to ash from coal or wood-burning fires on Earth. This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Tarantula Nebula in two wavelengths of infrared light.
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