Spitzer Heritage Archive

The Spitzer Space Telescope (formerly SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility), was launched into an Earth-trailing orbit on 25 August 2003, and ceased operations on 30 January 2020. Consisting of a 0.85-meter telescope and three science instruments, at the time of its launch, Spitzer was the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space.

The instruments aboard Spitzer (IRAC, IRS and MIPS) obtained images and spectra at wavelengths between 3 and 180 microns, with spatial resolution ranging from 2 arcseconds at the shortest wavelengths to 40 arcseconds at the longest.