The Spitzer Space Telescope explored the universe in infrared light and was able to observe the most distant objects in the universe
After more than 16 years of exploring the universe in infrared light, thereby revealing new wonders in our solar system, in our galaxy, and beyond - the mission of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has come to an end.
On Thursday, January 30, 2020, mission engineers moved the telescope to a safe state and stopped science observations. Spitzer Project Manager Joseph Hunt declared the mission officially over.
Launched in 2003, Spitzer was one of NASA's four major observatories, along with the visible-light Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the gamma-ray-searching Compton Observatory. The large observatory system demonstrated the importance or necessity of using different wavelengths to create A complete picture of the universe.
"Spitzer has taught us about completely new aspects of the universe and advanced our understanding of how the universe works, helped us understand our origins and helped answer the question of whether we are alone," said Thomas Zorbuchen, associate director of the space mission domain at NASA's Research Administration in Washington. "This large observatory also identified some important and new questions as well as objects that require further research, leaving a map for future studies. His enormous impact on science will remain well beyond the end of the mission."
Among his many scientific contributions, Spitzer studied comets and asteroids in our solar system and discovered a previously unknown ring around Saturn. He studied the formation of stars and planets, the evolution of galaxies from the early universe to the present, and the composition of interstellar dust. Spitzer has also proven to be a powerful tool for detecting extrasolar planets. Among other things, the scientists used it to identify the seven Earth-sized planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system, the largest number of planets found around a single star, and determine their densities.
In 2016, following a review of the astrophysics missions, NASA decided to stop Spitzer's operations in 2018 in preparation for the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, which will also study the universe in infrared light. When Webb's launch was delayed, Spitzer was given an extension To continue operations until this year, the extension gave Spitzer more time to continue generating much science and insight that would pave the way for the web to be launched. in 2021.
"Everyone who worked on this mission should be very proud today," Hunt said. "There are hundreds of people who contributed directly to Spitzer's success, and thousands who used his scientific abilities to explore the universe. We leave behind a powerful scientific and technological legacy."
Keeping the cold
Although Spitzer was not NASA's first infrared telescope, Spitzer was the most sensitive infrared telescope and provided a deeper and more distant view of the universe in infrared than its predecessors. From its orbit above the Earth's atmosphere, Spitzer could observe several wavelengths which cannot be observed from the ground. Spitzer's advantage was that his position relative to the Earth allowed him to avoid interference with infrared radiation originating from the Earth itself, which gave Spitzer has better sensitivity than even larger telescopes on Earth.
Spitzer's main mission came to an end in 2009, when the supply of liquid helium for cooling, needed to operate two of its three instruments, an infrared spectrograph (IRS) and a multichannel photometer (MIPS) ran out. The mission was considered a success, having achieved all of its objectives Its main sciences and more. But Spitzer's story is not over. Engineers and scientists were able to maintain the mission using two of the four wavelength channels on the third instrument, the Infrared Array (IRAC). Despite the engineering and operational challenges, Spitzer continued to produce important scientific findings for another ten and a half years. Much longer than the mission planners expected.
During his extended mission, Spitzer continued to make significant scientific discoveries. In 2014, he detected evidence of asteroid collisions with a star system during its formation. providing evidence that these collisions may have been common in early solar systems and critical to the formation of the planets. In 2016, Spitzer teamed up with Hubble to photograph the most distant galaxy ever detected. From 2016 onwards, Spitzer studied the TRAPPIST 1 system for more than 1,000 hours. All Spitzer data is free and publicly available in the Spitzer Data Archive. Mission scientists say they expect researchers to continue making discoveries with Spitzer long after the mission ends.
"I think Spitzer is an example of the best that people can achieve," said project scientist Michael Werner. "I feel lucky to have worked on this assignment, and to have seen the sophistication and genius of the team members."
The project has many partners in the scientific community - from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, the NASA Science Division in Washington, the Lockheed Martin company that built it, the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in California where the scientific data is also stored. Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The other instruments were built by Cornell University and the University of Arizona in Tucson. The IRAC instrument was developed at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in collaboration with the Harvard National Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
To the article on the NASA website
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