All about Spitzer

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Slide 11

Keeping Spitzer’s Instruments Even Colder

A tank of liquid helium is used to keep Spitzer’s instruments and detectors at 1.5 K

Slide 12

Spitzer’s Instruments

IRAC – InfraRed Array Camera

images at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8 mm

IRS – InfraRed Spectrograph

mid-IR spectroscopy

MIPS – Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer

images at 24, 70, and 160 mm

IRS

MIPS

IRAC

Slide 13

InfraRed Array Camera (IRAC)

Built at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory

Simultaneous images in four IR passbands

Slide 14

InfraRed Spectrometer

Built at Cornell University

Spectroscopy in the mid-IR

Slide 15

Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS)

Three detector arrays

128x128 pixel Si:As for 24 mm

32x32 pixel Ge:Ga for 70 mm

2x20 pixel Ge:Ga for 160 mm

Built at the University of Arizona

Slide 16

Spitzer Focal Plane

Spitzer instruments are arranged in fixed locations on the Spitzer focal plane

The telescope is rotated to move a particular science target to the right position for the instrument to be used

Other instruments record data for “serendipitous” fields

Slide 17

Spitzer Operations

www.spitzer.caltech.edu/about/now.shtml

What Is Spitzer Doing Now?

Slide 18

Future Infrared Satellites

2007: Herschel Space Observatory - a European Space Agency infrared-submillimeter mission planned for 2007 to study galaxy formation, interstellar matter, star formation and the atmospheres of comets and planets.

2007: Planck Surveyor - European Space Agency far infrared-submillimeter mission planned for 2007 to study Cosmic Background Radiation.

2010: The James Webb Space Telescope, planned for launch in about 2011, is a visible/infrared space mission to study the early universe and the formation of galaxies, stars and planets.