Hoping to peel back the curtains of time, NASA this week plans to launch the final member of a quartet of space telescopes designed to survey the universe from its hottest, most violent and energetic residents to the coolest embers of ancient galaxies. The Space Infrared Telescope Facility will give astronomers a powerful tool for hunting galaxies and other celestial objects that formed relatively soon after the Big Bang explosion that brought our universe into existence.These ancient objects are now so far away that their light has shifted into the cool, long-wavelength realm of infrared radiation, the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum stretching from about 1 micron to 200 microns. Visible light, in comparison, is between 0.4 and 0.7 microns; X-ray and gamma ray radiation far shorter. "The telescope is interesting because it can solve known problems and it has a great potential for new discoveries," said project scientist Michael Werner, who already has spent two decades working on SIRTF.
SIRTF's launch aboard an unmanned Delta rocket is scheduled for Saturday from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Operating in the deep freeze of space and equipped with a cryogenic liquid helium cooling system to dissipate the heat of the spacecraft itself, SIRTF also will seek out low-temperature objects such stellar dust discs that serve as planetary wombs.
View: Full Article | Source: Discovery Channel
