NASA'S Spitzer Sees The Cosmos Through 'Warm' Infrared Eyes
WASHINGTON -- NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is starting a
second career and taking its first shots of the cosmos since
warming up. The infrared telescope ran out of coolant May 15,
2009, more than five-and-one-half-years after launch. It has
since warmed to a still-frosty 30 degrees Kelvin (about minus
406 degrees Fahrenheit). New images taken with two of Spitzer's
infrared detector channels -- two that work at the new warmer
temperature -- demonstrate the observatory remains a powerful
tool for probing the dusty universe. The images show a bustling
star-forming region, the remains of a star similar to the sun,
and a swirling galaxy lined with stars. "The performance of the
two short wavelength channels of Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera
is essentially unchanged from what it was before the
observatory's liquid helium was exhausted," said Doug Hudgins,
the Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in
Washington. "To put that in perspective, that