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On January 30, 2020, NASA Spitzer Space Telescope he was retired after sixteen years of faithful service. As one of the four Great NASA Observatories, together Hubble, Chandra, and Compton space telescopes: Spitzer devoted himself to studying the Universe in infrared light. In doing so, it provided new ideas about our Universe and allowed the study of objects and phenomena that would otherwise be impossible.
For example, Spitzer It was the first telescope to see the light of an exoplanet and made important discoveries about comets, stars and distant galaxies. Therefore, it is fitting that mission scientists decided to spend the last five days before the telescope was dismantled capturing stunning images of the California Nebula, which were stitched into a mosaic and recently released to the public.
Located about 1,000 light-years from Earth, the California Nebula is named for the way its shape, long, narrow, and bent to the right near the bottom, resembles that of the Golden State. As with all nebulae, you can only see a lot in visible light, which is the result of the gas in the nebula being heated by stars inside, in this case the extremely massive Xi Persei (aka Menkib ).
This is where SpitzerEats capabilities come into play. Between 2009 and 2020, the space telescope studied the Universe in a non-visible partial spectrum, giving astronomers the ability to discern objects and matter that would otherwise be invisible to them. Spitzer did this using two detectors that simultaneously captured images of adjacent areas of the sky at different wavelengths of infrared light: 3.6 and 4.5 microns.
Looking at the California nebula, Spitzer revealed characteristics that were otherwise invisible. Of particular interest was the fine dust that mixes with the gas in the nebula, which absorbs visible and ultraviolet light from nearby stars and re-emits it as infrared light. As always, Spitzer took multiple images of this region of the sky in a grid pattern to ensure that both detectors could simultaneously image.
By combining those images into a mosaic, it was possible to see what a given region looked like at multiple wavelengths. These wavelengths were color-coded to indicate where in the IR wavelength they reside (cyan for 3.6 and red for 4.5 microns) and are displayed relative to what can be seen in visible light.
NASA selected the California Nebula during Spitzer’s Last week of operations from a list of potential targets that would be within the telescope’s field of view. The California nebula was selected because, a) Spitzer I had not yet studied it, and b) the probability that it contained prominent infrared features and provided an important scientific return.
As Sean Carey, the manager of the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech who helped select the nebula for observation, said in a recent NASA press release:
“At some point in the future, some scientist will be able to use that data to make a really interesting analysis. The entire Spitzer data file is available for use by the scientific community. This is another piece of heaven that we are putting there for everyone to study. “
Spitzer’s team made additional scientific observations until the last day before the mission ended (January 29), but none was as visually impressive as the California Nebula. These included light caused by zodiacal dust, which is material scattered throughout our Solar System from sublimated comets and collisions between asteroids.
Because comets and asteroids are remnants of material from the Solar System formation, observations of this dust can give astronomers a glimpse into the past. Spitzer’s orbit, which takes the observatory up to 256 million km (158 million miles) from Earth (or 600 times the distance from Earth to the Moon), also provided him with a unique point of view for studying zodiacal dust. .
The mission team also took advantage of this moment to close Spitzer’s camera shutter, something that had never been done before. This allowed the team to produce more accurate images of distant objects by subtracting the subtle effects Spitzer’s instruments could have on their light measurements.
Despite being retired, scientists continue to analyze the Spitzer data, which can be accessed by citizen researchers and scientists alike through the Spitzer data archive. This file is located at the Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), which is located at the Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech (where Spitzer scientific operations were carried out).
Next year, the next generation James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) will be displayed in space. Using its advanced set of IR instruments, which will allow for longer wavelength coverage and increased sensitivity, you will build on the legacy of Spitzer and Hubble examining the most distant and invisible parts of our universe.
To learn more about Spitzer And its biggest discoveries, NASA has created a free virtual reality app for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, which is available on the Spitzer website. Spitzer’s YouTube page also has two non-interactive virtual reality experiences that can be viewed as immersive 360 videos. Be sure to check them out!
Further reading: NASA / JPL
