After spending more than 16 years in space, NASA on Thursday decommissioned the Spitzer Space Telescope, which was earlier known as the Space Infrared Telescope Facility.
A press release issued by the space agency confirmed that mission engineers placed the spacecraft in safe mode -- essentially ending all science projects -- at around 5:30 p.m ET on Thursday. Spitzer Project Manager Joseph Hunt later confirmed the official ending of the mission.
The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched almost two decades ago in 2003. Soon after, it became part of NASA's Great Observatories program. The Spitzer Space Telescope found itself in an illustrious company that included the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory.
At the time of its launch, the Spitzer Space Telescope was NASA's most sensitive infrared telescope in history. It was capable of detecting wavelengths that cannot be observed from the ground.
In the 16 years that the Spitzer Telescope spent in space, it has made several scientific contributions to humanity.
Incidentally, the news of the ending of the Spitzer mission comes just days after NASA found evidence of a planet in another solar system, as previously reported by The Inquisitr.
According to Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, researchers used Spitzer to not only study objects in our solar system, but also to discover the mysteries behind star and planet formation in distant galaxies. It also played a significant role in the study of the evolution of galaxies and the composition of interstellar dust.
