On this day in 2003, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope to conduct infrared astronomy. Spitzer continued to operate until January of 2020.
NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) noted some of the triumphs of the space telescope, including:
- revealing a system of seven Earth-size planets around a star 40 light-years away;
- creating an unprecedented map of the Milky Way;
- directly observing light from a planet outside our solar system;
- directly identifying molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets; and
- revealing Saturn’s largest ring.
An impressive list of accomplishments for any telescope.
You can read more about Spitzer at this NASA mission website as well as this JPL website.
Our Awesome Universe 