Spitzer leaves a substantial scientific legacy across many fields of astronomy and planetary science that is spread throughout more than 8, peer-reviewed papers. It would be impossible to make a complete summary of everything that Spitzer has enabled us to learn about the Universe, but in this retrospective we are publishing a series of broad Review Articles covering certain topics, alongside some shorter articles from the architects and users of the Spitzer Space Telescope.
All Spitzer-related articles will be gathered together in an online collection. In this April issue, we start with three Review Articles covering subjects near and far.
Spitzer seems built for studying these dusty remnants of planetary systems that emit light across the infrared spectrum, but interestingly only a small number were known before Spitzer came along, and only the closest had been well characterized. PAHs are excellent tracers of conditions in astrophysical regions from planet-forming disks through to the interstellar media of high-redshift galaxies.
Spitzer was able to identify a population of highly obscured AGNs, and then separate the different dust components of these distant galaxies.
Forthcoming Review Articles in the series will cover exoplanets and brown dwarfs, the inner and outer Solar System, ultra- luminous infrared galaxies and high-redshift galaxies. Spitzer project scientist Michael Werner shares his unique view of the mission as it has developed, matured, bore fruit and concluded over more than 40 years. In a candid and touching interview, he takes us through the different manifestations of the Spitzer concept before it launched, the nail-biting moments while in development, and the lessons that have come from leading such a successful and long-lived mission.
Jan Cami , on the other hand, provides his perspective as a user of Spitzer. His team discovered a new extraterrestrial allotrope of carbon by looking at a Spitzer Infrared Spectrograph spectrum of a planetary nebula, realizing a decade-long personal quest.
He talks through the lead-up to the discovery of cosmic buckyballs, the public and academic response and the sprouting of a new branch of astrochemistry. May 15, — Spitzer depletes its onboard supply of liquid helium , used to cool the telescope mirror to as low as 5. Mission engineers are able to resume data collection using two out of four wavelength channels on the Infrared Array Camera IRAC instrument.
Infrared wavelengths are often referred to by their physical length; in this case, 3. A micron is about one millionth of a meter. This period forward is dubbed the Spitzer Beyond Mission. Engineers and scientists have been busy recovering the Spitzer Space Telescope from standby mode since it experienced an anomaly on Nov.
On Dec. On Nov. This mode is triggered by the spacecraft's fault protection system when an anomaly occurs. It puts Spitzer in a standby configuration until further instructions from the ground are received. The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or AIAA, a society for the field of aerospace engineering, established the award in for "individuals demonstrating leadership of innovative scientific investigation associated with space science missions.
Jet Propulsion Laboratory. About JPL. Engage With JPL. Mission Statistics. Launch Date Aug 25, Target Stars and Galaxies. About the mission.
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