Spitzer Telescope warms up to new career Temperature rise means
two of Spitzer's instruments will no longer be cold enough to
detect cool objects in space. May 6, 2009 Provided by NASA
Headquarters, Washington, D.C. May 6, 2009 Artist's concept of
Spitzer Space Telescope. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech The primary
mission of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is about to end after
more than 5.5 years of probing the cosmos with its keen infrared
eye. Around May 12, the telescope is expected to run out of the
liquid helium needed to chill some of its instruments to
operating temperatures. The end of the coolant will begin a new
era for Spitzer. The telescope will start its "warm" mission
with two channels of one instrument still working at full
capacity. Some of the science explored by a warm Spitzer will be
the same, and some will be entirely new. "We like to think of
Spitzer as being reborn," said Robert Wilson, Spitzer project
manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena,
California. "Spitzer led an am