Washington Another dust ring around Saturn and new planets outside our solar system: Spitzer was instrumental in many spectacular discoveries, now the decrepit space telescope has been finally switched off after almost 17 years in space.
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The mission was originally scheduled to run for two and a half years. The telescope, named after the astrophysicist Lyman Spitzer, started on August 25, 2003 from the Cape Canaveral spaceport. It followed the Earth on its way around the sun, but fell back over time, causing problems with the solar powered batteries. The helium that cooled the telescope’s instruments has also long since run out. Thousands of scientists have observed Spitzer for well over 100,000 hours. The most significant discoveries include a gigantic dust ring around Saturn and several exoplanets.
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