After studying the cosmos for 16 years, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope will shut down Thursday after mission officials send the observatory its final command.
smashed into it. The results revealed a surprising list of complex ingredients, such as clay and carbonates, that amounted to a recipe for the solar system’s “primordial soup.” Astronomers believe it may be akin to the recipes for other planetary systems.
Spitzer’s infrared cameras can penetrate the clouds of dust and gas that typically obscure the center of the Milky Way, allowing Spitzer to see the stars in the crowded galactic center region., launch costs included, came in around $776 million. With a reduced budget, Spitzer also had a relatively smaller team. The result was a better integrated group whose members were deeply invested in the project, Carey said.
The scientists and engineers did their best to maximize Spitzer’s viewing power. Rather than circling the planet like Hubble, it trailed behind Earth as it traveled around the Sun. This allowed Spitzer to avoid the confounding heat radiation from our home planet and to stare at the stars for far longer periods of time.
Spitzer can spot the tiny, periodic dips in brightness of other stars that are caused by a circling planet. In one of its major coups, Spitzer found five of thesurrounding the ultra-cool dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, three of which lie in the star’s habitable zone. But it will take years for astronomers to comb through Spitzer’s vast trove of archived data, he added, so they’ll be making new discoveries for years to come., who served as the mission’s project manager when it launched.
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