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- Launched into orbit: August 25, 2003
- Carried by a Delta rocket
- The only Great Observatory not launched by the Space Shuttle
- Largest Infrared telescope ever launched into space
- Primary mirror diameter: 0.85 meters
- Contains three cryogenically-cooled instrumentsNASA: NASA's Great Observatories
- Mass: 950 kilograms
- Lifetime: 2.5 to 5 yearsOfficial Site: About Spitzer - Fast Facts
- Cost: $670 millionSpaceflight Now: First images from Spitzer Space Telescope unveiled (December 18, 2003)
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The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) is one of NASA's four space-based telescopes that are collectively known as the Great Observatories. SST is the only one of the four that is designed to collect images in the Infrared (IR) spectrum of light.
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Specific Phenomena
The Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared capabilities make it especially useful to studying:- Regions of space obscured by gas or dust clouds
- Regions where stars are forming
- Centers of galaxies
- Newly forming planetary systems
- Extrasolar planetsNASA: NASA's Great Observatories
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Spitzer Space Telescope Questions
Can we use moon as a base for our next gen space telescope? 2 AnswersAs you point out, the biggest disadvantage to placing an observatory on the moon is the cost. Other difficulties include protecting the telescope's optics from... read more
Describe the attributes of WR25 as seen by the Spitzer Space Telescope. 1 AnswerI can't find any reports or images indicating that the Spitzer Space Telescope has observed WR25, but Hubble and the XMM-Newton x-ray observatory have. WR25 is... read more
Telescope Construction? 1 AnswerIt looks like the construction is going on right next to the National Weather center there in Norman OK, right off Highway 9 at Jenkins ave. read more
Will the Einstein Telescope verify Dark Matter? 1 AnswerI found two recent "Einstein" telescopes. One was Einstein's own telescope, recently re-discovered. The other is the one in Chicago. One or the other could ve... read more
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Spitzer Space Telescope Timeline
- 1983: NASA solicits proposals to build a large Shuttle-based Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF).
- 1984: Results from precursor IRAS mission lead NASA to pursue a long duration, free-flying observatory.
- 1991: Under severe budget restrictions, SIRTF goes through three redesign cycles.
- 1993: A Delta rocket is selected as the launch vehicle for Spitzer instead of the Space Shuttle.
- August 25, 2003: SIRTF is launched into space atop a Delta 7920H.
- December 18, 2003: NASA renames SIRTF in honor of American astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer.
- April 26, 2006: Spitzer Space Telescope surpasses the 2.5 years of minimum expected lifetime.
- April 2009: Total depletion of liquid-helium coolant tank, end of cryogenic phase of the mission.
- May 2009: Development of a "warm", post-cryo program for the observation of extrasolar planets, search for brown dwarfs and wide area surveys of galaxies.
- December 2014: Expected telecommunications performance degradation and end of operations.
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On Twitter Powered by Twitter
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Finally back in Boston, finally have wireless, and finally tweeting again! WATCHING Spitzer Space Telescope on BU Quad: http://bit.ly/30x3OM
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Beautiful images from the Spitzer Space Telescope http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/main/index.html
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope Discovers Largest Ring Around Saturn http://tinyurl.com/yzaueq9
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NASA Spitzer Space Telescope Helps in Studying Structure of ... http://bit.ly/2XQZdS
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