NASA Space Observatory Takes First Photos

A $1.2 billion observatory recently launched into space has successfully taken its first pictures, NASA said Wednesday.

The images were taken as part of a test of the Space Infrared Telescope Facility’s infrared array camera.

Since it will take another month to further focus and cool the telescope, the early images are not as sharp or polished as they will be those once the mission begins in earnest this fall, NASA said. The images show the infrared glow of stars and galaxies.

“We’re extremely pleased, because these first images have exceeded our expectations,” said Michael Werner, the mission’s project scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The space telescope is the fourth and last of NASA’s Great Observatories, a series that includes the Hubble Space Telescope.

The observatory was designed to be sensitive to infrared radiation – heat – that’s invisible to human eyes. Astronomers plan to use that sensitivity to spy faraway celestial objects and give astronomers a view of distant solar systems being born.

The observatory is known as SIRTF for now, but will be renamed in December.

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On the Net: http://sirtf.caltech.edu/