NASA - Spitzer Space Telescope patch.
January 16, 2020
An artist's concept of the Spitzer Space Telescope.Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA will host a live program at 10 a.m. PST (1 p.m. EST) Wednesday, Jan. 22, to celebrate the far-reaching legacy of the agency's Spitzer Space Telescope - a mission that, after 16 years of amazing discoveries, soon will come to an end.
One of NASA's four Great Observatories, Spitzer launched on Aug. 25, 2003, and has studied the cosmos in infrared light. Its breathtaking images have revealed the beauty of the infrared universe.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (Mission Overview)
Spitzer made some of the first studies of exoplanet atmospheres (atmospheres of planets around stars other than our Sun). It confirmed two and discovered five ofthe seven Earth-size exoplanets around the star TRAPPIST-1 - the largest batch of terrestrial planets ever found around a single star. On Thursday, Jan. 30, engineers will decommission the Spitzer spacecraft and bring this amazing mission to a close.
JPL manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena, California. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
Related articles:
Sixteen Images for Spitzer's Sweet 16
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/08/sixteen-images-for-spitzers-sweet-16.html
How NASA's Spitzer Has Stayed Alive for So Long
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2019/06/how-nasas-spitzer-has-stayed-alive-for.html
For more information about Spitzer, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/spitzer
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
Image (mentioned), Video (JPL), Text, Credits: NASA/Liz Landau/JPL/Calla Cofield.
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