Specs and History of The Spitzer Space Telescope

Formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF), the Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) is the fourth and final member of NASA's observatory mission. Launched on August 25, 2003, it became the companion to the Hubble Space Telescope.

It stands about 4 meters (13 feet) tall, and weighs approximately 865 kilograms (1,906 pounds) and follows an unusual orbit known as a heliocentric orbit, instead of the usual geocentric orbits most of our satellites follow.  Helicentric orbits are orbits around the sun, such as Earth's orbit and the Spitzer actually trails Earth's orbit.

The Spitzer contains an Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) that can operate simulaniously on four wavelengths.  Each module uses a 256 x 256 pixel detector.

It also has an Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) that operates two high resolution modes and two low resolution modes.

The Spitzer is the first telescope to ever directly capture the light from extrasolar planets commonly known as Hot Jupiters.

Since it studies infrared light, which we perceive as heat, it must be kept extraordinarily cold to keep its own heat from interfering with the detection of infrared radiation from space. In addition to being extremely well insulated and shielded from heat, Spitzer has a liquid helium tank that helps keep the parts of the science instruments that need to stay chilly as cold as 1.4 Kelvin. That’s very close to 0 Kelvin, or “absolute zero,” the lowest temperature possible, at which all motion stops.

There are actually two stages of the mission.  The first, or cold mission, was only operable for ten years.  As the coolant supply exhausted, certain equipment on the Spitzer became inoperable.  Now it is in the second, or Warm Mission, and will continue to transmit images from two of its cameras.