ABSTRACT

In March of 2004, within a few months of the start of the scientific mission of the Spitzer Space Telescope, I talked here at GSFC about the scientific results that were only just starting to emerge from NASA’s Great Observatory for infrared exploration of the Universe. Ten years later, we are awash in Spitzer data, and exciting new results continue to pour in from the observatory, which has now completed about a quarter of a revolution around the sun as seen from Earth. In this talk, I will summarize the latest scientific results from the Spitzer warm mission, which started in mid-2009 and relies totally on the 3.6 and 4.5um arrays of the IRAC camera built here at GSFC. I will highlight results on exoplanets and on the early Universe, two of the prime areas of study from Spitzer in recent years. In addition, I will present results from a selection of the many investigations which Spitzer has carried out in other scientific areas, including results of particular interest from the cryogenic mission.

About the Speaker:

Dr. Michael Werner is the Project Scientist for the Spitzer Space Telescope and also the Chief Scientist for Astronomy and Physics at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology. He has been an active researcher in infrared astronomy for over 35 years, studying star formation, the interstellar medium and the central regions of our Galaxy. He has served as Spitzer Project Scientist since 1984 and was one of the leaders of the evolution of Spitzer from a shuttle-attached payload into the elegant free-flying observatory now operating successfully in an Earth-trailing solar orbit. Werner was named the 2006 George Darwin lecturer by the Royal Astronomical Society in recognition of the success of Spitzer and is also the recipient of two NASA Outstanding Leadership medals. He graduated from Haverford College in 1963 with a B.A. in physics and received a PhD in Astronomy from Cornell University in 1968.