Michael Werner: Lifting the Cosmic Veil: The Infrared Universe Revealed by the Spitzer Space Telescope
Beckman Auditorium
- Public Event
This event was digitally recorded and is available for viewing on the Caltech Theater site.Where did we come from? Are we alone? These questions have driven scientific inquiry for centuries and frame the agenda for modern astrophysical studies. Since August of 2003, astronomers have had a powerful new tool to use in these inquiries: the Spitzer Space Telescope, developed and launched for NASA under JPL leadership and now operated by Caltech s Spitzer Science Center for use by the scientific community. Spitzer explores the heavens at infrared wavelengths, studying the coldest, most distant, and most hidden objects in the universe. The Spitzer design incorporates major innovations in cryogenics, optics, and infrared detector arrays into an extremely efficient and cost-effective facility which achieves a thousand-fold increase in capability over previous infrared space observatories. The lecture will describe the technical and scientific principles which power Spitzer, and display and explain Spitzer s images and spectra and the revolutionary scientific results they have produced.
Michael Werner has been working on the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) since 1977 and has been Project Scientist since 1984, responsible for seeing that the mission's scientific objectives are clearly defined and that the telescope's scientific performance will achieve those objectives.
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Event Series
Earnest C. Watson Lecture Series
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