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Infrared Telescope Lifts Off

Posted by Hemos on from the up-up-up-and-away dept.

An anonymous reader writes "On its Delta 2 Heavy-Lift vehicle, the Space Infrared Telescope (SIRTF) successfully launched to its solar orbit at 1:35 AM (EDT). As a result of the expansion of the Universe, most of the optical and ultraviolet radiation emitted from stars, galaxies, and quasars since the beginning of time now lies in the infrared. How and when the first objects in the Universe formed will be learned in large part from this observatory's infrared observations."

4 of 127 comments (clear)

  1. Digital Cameras in freezers on rockets. by mnmn · · Score: 1, Interesting

    So as we try to see farther and farther, we need to get more infrared pictures. And we need to send bigger and bigger fridges into space with bigger cameras inside.

    Soon they'll try the ultimate, using the recent MIT laser cooling technique to bring down the temperature to below 1 kelvins. Now thats when the ambient cosmic background radiation will become a pain.

    Ive photographed in the night, and I know you need to keep the shutter open for up to a minute or more. I wonder if those giant freezers can hold still as they orbit around a planet that orbits around the sun. They will soon be needing LONG exposure times.

    --
    "Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
  2. A good article about SIRTF by fuqqer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I posted this as a news story yesterday. It was rejected.

    Anyway,

    Here's a nice article about SIRTF that I found to be pretty cool.

  3. 60 years by solarlux · · Score: 5, Interesting

    God, I hope they calculate the trajectories right or there might be an interesting "meteor" shower in about 60 years...

    CNN Article

    Unlike most astronomical spacecraft SIRTF will not be orbiting the Earth. Instead, it will be put into orbit around the sun. "SIRTF will be following the Earth around the sun, kind of like a faithful puppy dog," astronomer Michael Werner said. The solar orbit increases the lifetime of the spacecraft. SIRTF will gradually lag further and further away from the Earth until it's too far to be detected. But in about six decades the Earth will "catch up" with SIRTF, like a race car lapping another race car.
  4. SIRTF may discover advanced civilizations by bradbury · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is worth noting that the SIRTF SWIRE survey may be able to detect solar system sized supercomputers, aka Matrioshka Brains. For discussion see the thread starting here and navigate using the icons in the upper right hand corner of the screen.