Spitzer Space Telescope

The Spitzer Space Telescope, launched in 2003, was NASA’s Infrared Great Observatory. Among many other accomplishments in its 16 years of operation, Spitzer discovered a giant ring of Saturn, revealed a system of seven Earth-size planets around a star 40 light-years away, and studied the most distant known galaxies.

In 2009, Spitzer ran out of liquid coolant and began its "warm mission," refocusing its studies on determining how quickly our universe is stretching apart, and characterizing asteroids and the atmospheres of gas-giant planets.

Spitzer operated in its warm mission for over a decade, or about twice the length of its primary mission. On Jan. 30, 2020, engineers decommissioned the spacecraft, bringing the Spitzer mission to a close. It's science legacy lives on via the Spitzer Data Archive.