SATLASInfrared · Space
Spitzer
Spitzer Space Telescope
EndedEnded 30 January 2020, after starting 25 August 2003.
An 85 cm telescope in an Earth-trailing orbit, cryogenically cooled until 2009 and then operating warm at 3.6 and 4.5 µm until 2020. IRAC, IRS and MIPS traced dusty star formation and the stellar massarcsecond1/3600 of a degree (″). A milliarcsecond (mas) is 10⁻³″ and a microarcsecond (µas) 10⁻⁶″. Atmospheric seeing limits ground telescopes to about 0.5–1″ without adaptive optics. of distant galaxies; in 2005 it made the first detection of light emitted by an exoplanet, and later characterised the seven TRAPPIST-1 planets.
- Operator
- NASA
- Orbit
- Earth-trailing solar orbit
- Aperture
- 85 cm
- Passband
- 3.6 µm – 160 µm
- Launch
- 25 August 2003
- End
- 30 January 2020
Passband
Sky coverage
Pointed observationspointed observationObserving chosen targets, usually selected by peer review in annual proposal cycles, as opposed to surveying the sky systematically. Gives depth on few objects; the total area observed stays small. and large legacy surveys, including GLIMPSE of the inner Galactic planeGalactic planeThe plane of the Milky Way's disc, a band around the sky at Galactic latitude b ≈ 0°. Dense in stars, gas and dust: rich for stellar work, crowded and heavily extincted for extragalactic surveys, which usually avoid it. and deep extragalactic fields.
Archives
Sources
Verified 15 November 2026.
Other infrared facilities: VLT, WISE / NEOWISE, JWST, Euclid, SPHEREx, Roman, NEO Surveyor, ELT