McGill.CA / Science / Department of Physics

Physical Society Colloquium

Interview for Faculty Position

First Science Results from the Spitzer Space Telescope

Daniel Stern

Caltech

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched on August 25th, 2003. After four months of check-out activities, the telescope was commissioned with on-orbit performance exceeding expectations. Spitzer, formerly known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility, is the fourth and final cornerstone of NASA's Great Observatories program, complementing the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and the Hubble Space Telescope. Spitzer has unprecedented capabilities for infrared exploration, reaching 2 to 3 orders of magnitude deeper than was previously possible. I will discuss early science results from Spitzer, with an emphasis on extragalactic programs planned or recently obtained. I will also briefly discuss NuSTAR, a 6-80 keV focusing X-ray telescope currently under competitive review. Extragalactic surveys planned for NuSTAR complement efforts already underway with Spitzer.

Tuesday, February 17th 2004, 16:00
Ernest Rutherford Physics Building, R.E. Bell Conference Room (room 103)