Liked on YouTube: Spitzer Space Telescope History And Mission Overview!

Spitzer Space Telescope History And Mission Overview!
From its construction, to its mission, to the things it discovered and more! Join us as we tell you about the Spitzer Space Telescope History And Mission Overview! Subscribe for more videos:https://www.youtube.com/c/InsaneCuriosity?sub_confirmation=1? When it comes to space, there's only so much that we can learn from where we are on Earth. Thus, over the course of history, various astronomers have used things like telescopes to try and learn about the solar system, our galaxy, other galaxies, and the universe in general. But, even with the most powerful of telescopes they are not able to go and scan and learn everything they can. So, with the invention of satellites and probes, NASA and other agencies made space telescopes to go send into space to collect more data. And one of the most famous ones that was "retired" recently was that of the Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer Space Telescope was the final mission in NASA's Great Observatories Program - a family of four space-based observatories, each observing the Universe in a different kind of light. The other missions in the program included the visible-light Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory (CGRO), and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory (CXO). Spitzer specifically was an infrared space telescope launched in 2003 and retired on January 30th, 2020. Spitzer was designed to detect infrared radiation, which is primarily heat radiation. It is comprised of two major components: The Cryogenic Telescope Assembly, which contains the a 85 centimeter telescope and Spitzer's three scientific instruments. The Spacecraft, which controls the telescope, provides power to the instruments, handles the scientific data and communicates with Earth. It may seem like a contradiction, but NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope had to be simultaneously warm and cold to function properly. Everything in the Cryogenic Telescope Assembly must be cooled to only a few degrees above absolute zero (-459 degrees Fahrenheit, or -273 degrees Celsius). This is achieved with an onboard tank of liquid helium, or cryogen. Meanwhile, electronic equipment in The Spacecraft portion needed to operate near room temperature. Spitzer's highly sensitive instruments allowed scientists to peer into cosmic regions that are hidden from optical telescopes, including dusty stellar nurseries, the centers of galaxies, and newly forming planetary systems. Spitzer's infrared eyes also allowed astronomers to see cooler objects in space, like failed stars (brown dwarfs), extrasolar planets, giant molecular clouds, and organic molecules that may hold the secret to life on other planets. So as you can see, this was a very important mission, and one that actually went on a lot longer than it was originally intended to, much to the joy of those who studied its findings. You see, Spitzer was originally built to last for a minimum of 2.5 years, but it lasted in the cold phase for over 5.5 years. On May 15th, 2009 the coolant was finally depleted and the Spitzer "warm mission" began. Operating with 2 channels from one of its instruments called IRAC, Spitzer was able to continue to operate until the year 2020 when it was finally retired by NASA. Now, earlier we noted that the Spitzer had a set of three scientific instruments that would allow it to scan space. Let's detail those for you now. First, was the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)" An infrared camera which operates simultaneously on four wavelengths (3.6 μm, 4.5 μm, 5.8 μm and 8 μm). Each module uses a 256×256-pixel detector—the short-wavelength pair use indium antimonide technology, the long-wavelength pair use arsenic-doped silicon impurity band conduction technology. The principal investigator is Giovanni Fazio of Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; the flight hardware was built by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Second on the Spitzer satellite was the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS): An infrared spectrometer with four sub-modules which operate at the wavelengths 5.3–14 μm (low resolution), 10–19.5 μm (high resolution), 14–40 μm (low resolution), and 19–37 μm (high resolution). Each module uses a 128×128-pixel detector—the short-wavelength pair use arsenic-doped silicon blocked impurity band technology, the long-wavelength pair use antimony-doped silicon blocked impurity band technology.[28] The principal investigator was James R. Houck of Cornell University; the flight hardware was built by Ball Aerospace. Finally, there was the Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS): Three detector arrays in the far-infrared (128 × 128 pixels at 24 μm, 32 × 32 pixels at 70 μm, 2 × 20 pixels at 160 μm). The 24 μm detector is identical to one of the IRS short-wavelength modules. #InsaneCuriosity#SpitzerSpaceTelescope #Spacetelescopes
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