NASA's Spitzer Telescope completes 15 years in Space on 25th August: Happy Birthday to Spitzer
Washington: Sun, 26 Aug 2018 18:38, by: Deepak Kumar

NASA's Spitzer Space telescope completes its 15 years of service in the Space yesterday on 25th August. The Spitzer Space Telescope is one of the members of the "Great Observatory" program by NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope was launched in solar orbit on August 25, 2003  in Delta II rocket  from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Spitzer Space Telescope is part of "Great Observatory" program from NASA to view universe; this Observatory consists of four big-ticket space telescopes, Spitzer, Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO), and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. Through this setup NASA is viewing and observing the universe.

Initially Spitzer Space telescope was installed in the Sun's orbit for 2.5 years scheduled mission. But this telescope is still working and serving NASA for the last 15 years. Its lifespan is found to be much more than expected. On 25th August 2018 it completed 15 years, NASA congratulates Spitzer on its 15th Birthday and celebrate by releasing mobile applications for public users.

Paul Hertz, director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA said "In its 15 years of operations, Spitzer has opened our eyes to new ways of viewing the universe,".

He further added "Spitzer's discoveries extend from our own planetary backyard, to planets around other stars, to the far reaches of the universe. And by working in collaboration with NASA's other Great Observatories, Spitzer has helped scientists gain a more complete picture of many cosmic phenomena".

The Spitzer Space Telescope is designed to detect infrared light, which is emitted by warm objects. These infrared rays are detected by Spitzer Telescope and then it finds the warm objects in the space. The main goal of Spitzer Telescope was to study the planets of solar system, but due to its usability this telescope is being used to observer objects outside solar system also. The Spitzer Space Telescope is now a proven invaluable tool for NASA to study space.

During its 15 years of service Spitzer Space telescope performed well and logged over 106,000 hours of observation, which is far more than planned.

To celebrate the success of Spitzer NASA has released two products, The NASA Selfies app for iOS and Android, and the Exoplanet Excursions VR Experience for Oculus and Vive, as well as a 360-video version for Smartphones. These applications can be downloaded from the iOS for iPhone/iPad users and from Google Play for Android users.

NASA released a video named "15 Years in Space: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope" on the Youtube.

Spitzer Telescope mission was extended to "Spitzer Beyond" in 2016 and currently it is scheduled continue its operation till November 2019 or more.

--Deepak Kumar

  Author

Deepak Kumar - Editor

Deepak Kumar is Science Graduate from Delhi University with more than 17 years of experience in Media and Technical field. With a background in Science and Media field, Deepak has been offering services in the media houses. He has worked as director and chief in many companies. During his journalistic career, he has achieved many milestones working in various organisations. As a technical writer, he is of scientific bend of mind and has done many glorious stories in the field during the career.

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