12/19/2003: 
Technologica
Mindblowing Images from the New Spitzer Space Telescope
article at RedNova
The dusty, star-studded arms of M81, a nearby spiral galaxy
similar to our own, are illuminated in unprecedented detail.
Credit: NASA - click to enlarge.
NASA -- A new window to the universe has opened with today's release of the first dazzling images from NASA's newly named Spitzer Space Telescope, formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility.
The first observations, of a glowing stellar nursery; a swirling, dusty galaxy; a disc of planet-forming debris; and organic material in the distant universe, demonstrate the power of the telescope's infrared detectors to capture cosmic features never before seen.
The Spitzer Space Telescope was also officially named today after the late Dr. Lyman Spitzer, Jr. He was one of the 20th century's most influential scientists, and in the mid-1940s, he first proposed placing telescopes in space.
