16 years later, NASA says goodbye to the Spitzer Space Telescope

NASA has today announced that they would be officially saying goodbye to the Spitzer Space Telescope. As a new telescope is on the brink of completion, Splitzer's time is unfortunately up.

The Spitzer Space Telescope was launched back in 2003 and has provided scientists, astronomers and researchers alike with some of the most influential discoveries to date. Spitzer is an infrared telescope that gave researchers discoveries such as finding some of the oldest stars in the galaxy, as well as being able to detect the light reflected off distant exoplanets.

The Spitzer Space Telescope worked hand-in-hand with the Hubble Space Telescope as Spitzer was able to detect light rays from distant objects, then Hubble was able to capture glorious images of them. This gave scientists and astronomers a better understanding on what is out there in the abyss of space. As the James Webb Space Telescope nears its delayed completion, NASA decided it's time to decommission the Spitzer Space Telescope, read more on that here.