"The advances we make across many areas in astrophysics in the future will be because of Spitzer's extraordinary legacy."Īfter 16 years of unveiling the infrared universe, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has left a singular legacy. "Spitzer taught us how important infrared light is to understanding our universe, both in our own cosmic neighborhood and as far away as the most distant galaxies," said Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA Headquarters. Launched in 2003, Spitzer revealed previously hidden features of known cosmic objects and led to discoveries and insights spanning from our own solar system to nearly the edge of the universe. The Spitzer mission will come to a close on Jan. Microlensing could not have been done early in the mission when Spitzer was closer to Earth, but now that the spacecraft is farther away, it has a better chance of measuring these events.NASA is celebrating the legacy of one of its Great Observatories, the Spitzer Space Telescope, which has studied the universe in infrared light for more than 16 years. Scientists are using microlensing to look for a blip in that brightening, which could mean that the foreground star has a planet orbiting it. When a star passes in front of another star, the gravity of the first star can act as a lens, making the light from the more distant star appear brighter. Spitzer can also use a technique called microlensing to find planets closer to the center of our galaxy. Spitzer data also helped scientists determine that all seven planets are rocky, and made these the best-understood exoplanets to date. In one of its most remarkable achievements, Spitzer discovered three of the TRAPPIST-1 planets and confirmed that the system has seven Earth-sized planets orbiting an ultra-cool dwarf star. Using what’s called the “transit method,” Spitzer can stare at a star and detect periodic dips in brightness that happen when a planet crosses a star’s face. During the Spitzer mission, engineers have learned how to control the spacecraft’s pointing more precisely to find and characterize exoplanets, too. But the telescope’s accurate star-targeting system and the ability to control unwanted changes in temperature have made it a useful tool for studying exoplanets. Spitzer wasn’t designed to study exoplanets, but made huge strides in this area.Įxoplanet science was in its infancy in 2003 when Spitzer launched, so the mission’s first scientists and engineers had no idea it could observe planets beyond our solar system. With a mirror less than 1 meter in diameter, Spitzer in space is more sensitive than even a 10-meter-diameter telescope on Earth.Īrtist's view of the TRAPPIST-1 system of seven Earth-size planets. What’s more, Spitzer doesn’t have to contend with Earth’s atmosphere, daily temperature variations or day-night cycles, unlike ground-based telescopes. In this way, Spitzer acts as an extension of human vision to explore the universe, near and far. Objects too faint or distant for optical telescopes to detect, hidden by dense clouds of space dust, can often be seen with Spitzer. From turbulent clouds where stars are born to small asteroids close to Earth’s orbit, a wide range of phenomena can be studied in infrared light. Infrared wavelengths of light, which primarily come from heat radiation, are too long to be seen with human eyes, but are important for exploring space - especially when it comes to getting information about something extremely far away. A stellar nursery called Elephant's Trunk Nebula, where Spitzer revealed newly formed protostars.
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