{"id":95329,"date":"2019-08-26T20:42:37","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T03:42:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/how-nasas-spitzer-has-stayed-alive-for-so-long"},"modified":"2019-08-26T20:42:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-27T03:42:37","slug":"how-nasas-spitzer-has-stayed-alive-for-so-long","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/08\/how-nasas-spitzer-has-stayed-alive-for-so-long","title":{"rendered":"How NASA\u2019s Spitzer Has Stayed Alive for So Long"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today marks the 16th anniversary of the launch of NASA\u2019s Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be switched off permanently on Jan. 30, 2020. By then, the spacecraft will have operated for more than 11 years beyond its prime mission. Discover how the spacecraft has explored the cosmos in infrared light for so many years:<\/p>\n

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After nearly 16 years of exploring the cosmos in infrared light, NASA\u2019s Spitzer Space Telescope<\/a> will be switched off permanently on Jan. 30, 2020. By then, the spacecraft will have operated for more than 11 years beyond its prime mission, thanks to the Spitzer engineering team\u2019s ability to address unique challenges as the telescope slips farther and farther from Earth.<\/p>\n

Managed and operated by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, Spitzer is a small but transformational observatory. It captures infrared light, which is often emitted by \u201cwarm\u201d objects that aren\u2019t quite hot enough to radiate visible light. Spitzer has lifted the veil on hidden objects in nearly every corner of the universe, from a new ring around Saturn<\/a> to observations of some of the most distant galaxies<\/a> known. It has spied stars in every stage of life<\/a>, mapped our home galaxy<\/a>, captured gorgeous images of nebulas<\/a> and probed newly discovered planets<\/a> orbiting distant stars.<\/p>\n

But as Spitzer\u2019s deputy mission manager, Joseph Hunt, said, \u201cYou can have a world-class spacecraft, but it doesn\u2019t mean anything if you can\u2019t get the data back home.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the launch of NASA\u2019s Spitzer Space Telescope, which will be switched off permanently on Jan. 30, 2020. By then, the spacecraft will have operated for more than 11 years beyond its prime mission. Discover how the spacecraft has explored the cosmos in infrared light for so many years: After [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":465,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1527,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alien-life","category-engineering"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/465"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95329\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}