longevity enabled time-domain studies of young debris disks that are actively forming terrestrial planets and rejuvenized the study of dusty white dwarfs. Spitzer's legacy will endure into the next decade with discoveries expected from new instruments on SOFIA, the James Webb Space Telescope and ...
Last month, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope ran out of the cryogen that has kept its instruments cool and allowed them to peer through the universe at some of the coldest objects in space for the last 5.5 years. Far from ending the mission though, the milestone marked the beginning of an ...
Spitzer Space Telescope, U.S. satellite, the fourth and last of the NASA fleet of ‘Great Observatories.’ Studying the cosmos in infrared light, it discovered three planets in the habitable zone of the TRAPPIST-1 system and the outermost ring of Saturn.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed the universe in infrared light for more than 16 years, from shortly after its launch in 2003 until its long-extended mission was shut down by flight controllers in 2020. Spitzer was the last of the NASA Great Observatories, which saw four specialized te...
hot Jupiter discoveries soon followed. At first, researchers thought they might represent a more common configuration for other planetary systems in our galaxy beyond our own solar system. But new research, including that from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, has shown that they are relatively rare...
Though it was not NASA’s first space-based infrared telescope, Spitzer was the most sensitive infrared telescope in history when it launched, and it delivered a deeper and more far-reaching view of the infrared cosmos than its predecessors. Above Earth’s atmosphere, Spitzer could detect some ...
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has concluded after more than 16 years of exploring the universe in infrared light.NASA/JPL-Caltech After a 16 years of collecting images of our galaxy and beyond, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope mission ended this week. At 2:30 p.m. PT on January 30, th...
The Spitzer Telescope launched 16 years ago, in August 2003. To celebrate its sweet 16, NASA has shared 16 of the most beautiful space images captured by the infrared telescope. In the image above, blue hues represent visible light, while red and green represent infrared light. ...
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spent 15 years in space. In honor of this anniversary, 15 of Spitzer's greatest discoveries are featured in a gallery. Launched into a solar orbit on Aug. 25, 2003, Spitzer trails behind Earth and has been gradually drifting farther away from our planet....
Some other major discoveries made using the Spitzer space telescope include: — The largest known ring around Saturn, a wispy, fine structure with 300 times the diameter of Saturn. Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over100,000 subscriberswho rely on Phys.org for daily insig...