NASA Announces New Name for Space Infrared Telescope Facility
December 18, 2003
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe today announced that NASA's Space
Infrared Telescope Facility has been renamed the Spitzer Space
Telescope. It was named in honor of the late Dr. Lyman Spitzer Jr.,
one of the 20th century's most distinguished scientists.
Spitzer's pioneering efforts to put telescopes in space led to two
successful space missions, including the Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA also released the Spitzer Space Telescopes first dazzling
observations.
"The Spitzer Space Telescope takes its place at the forefront of
astronomy in the 21st century, just as its namesake, Dr. Lyman
Spitzer Jr., was at the forefront of astronomy in the 20th," said
NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Science Dr. Ed Weiler.
The telescope was launched August 25, 2003, from Cape Canaveral Air
Force Station, Fla. Its state-of-the-art infrared detectors pierce
the dense clouds of gas and dust that enshroud many celestial
objects, including distant galaxies; clusters of stars in formation;
and planet forming discs surrounding stars. It is the fourth of
NASA's Great Observatories, a program that also includes the Hubble
Space Telescope, Chandra X-ray Observatory and the Compton Gamma Ray
Observatory.
The new name was chosen after an international contest sponsored by
NASA. More than 7,000 names and supporting essays were submitted,
with more than a third coming from outside the United States. Jay
Stidolph, a Canadian resident of Fort Nelson, British Columbia,
submitted the winning entry.
Spitzer (1914-1997) was the first to propose, in 1946, placing a
large telescope in space to avoid the blurring effects of Earth's
atmosphere. He then devoted the next 50 years of his career to
making this vision a reality. His efforts led to the Hubble Space
Telescope and another successful NASA space telescope -- the
Copernicus satellite. He also made significant contributions to the
fields of stellar dynamics, the interstellar medium and plasma
physics.
Spitzer served on the faculty of Princeton University for 50 years.
He received numerous awards, including the Catherine Wolfe Bruce
gold medal (1973); the National Academy of Sciences' Henry Draper
Medal; the first James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics by the
American Physical Society (1975); the Gold Medal of the Royal
Astronomical Society (1978); the National Medal of Science (1979);
and the Crafoord Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy (1985), the
equivalent of the Nobel Prize for fields excluded from those awards.
In addition to being an outstanding scientist, Spitzer was an
exceptional teacher, well regarded by his colleagues and students.
He authored two popular reference books: Physics of Fully Ionized
Gases and Diffuse Matter in Space.
Considered to be a man of incredible discipline, diligence and
politeness, Spitzer also loved to mountain-climb and ski. He was a
member of the American Alpine Club. His wife, Doreen Canaday
Spitzer, four children and 10 grandchildren survive him.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages the
Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Office of Space Science,
Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science
Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
For information about the Spitzer Space Telescope on the Internet,
visit http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu.
