Space Telescope, “Spitzer” is preparing to mark the anniversary.
August 25, that is tomorrow Space Telescope, “Spitzer” will celebrate its tenth anniversary. It was launched into Earth orbit August 25, 2003 from Cape Canaveral (Florida, USA) using a rocket Delta 7920H ELV.
That passed 10 years in orbit for the “Spitzer” in continuous operation and numerous discoveries.
“Spitzer” is the Observatory NASA (observatory code 245). The telescope is used for space surveillance in the infrared range. In the infrared, ie heat, the field is the maximum radiation slabosvetyaschegosya matter in the universe – the faintest of cooled stars, extrasolar planets, and giant molecular clouds. Infrared rays are absorbed by Earth’s atmosphere and almost fall out of space on the surface, making it impossible to check ground-based telescopes. On the other hand, are transparent to infrared radiation cosmic dust clouds that hide from us a lot of interesting things, such as the galactic center.
Despite the fact that the May 15, 2009 at the telescope ran out of coolant, some devices continue their work until now.
During his tenure, “Spitzer” studied comets and asteroids, a myriad of stars, planets, galaxies, space opened spherical structures called “buckyballs» (buckyballs). Scientists expect that the “Spitzer” will be able to do many more interesting discoveries. So Happy Birthday, Spitzer!
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