User:Curious little girl

FY 2003 ACCOMPLISHMENTS The Spitzer Space Telescope (SST, formerly the Space Infrared Telescope Facility), the fourth and final Great The observatory was launched and began science operations. Spitzer is the largest infrared telescope ever launched into space. Its highly sensitive instruments allow us to peer into regions of space that are hidden from optical telescopes. Many areas of space are filled with vast, dense clouds of gas and dust that block our view. Infrared light, however, can penetrate these clouds, allowing us to see into regions of star formation, the centres of galaxies, and newly forming planetary systems. The Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) provided some of the most important scientific results in modern astronomy. The WMAP science team constructed the first detailed full-sky map of the oldest light in the universe. WMAP data have determined the age of the universe to an unprecedented level of accuracy: 13.7 billion years. These data have also shown that the first stars ignited 200 million years after the Big Bang, provided new evidence that the universe is expanding at an increasing rate, and determined that the universe is composed of 4% conventional matter, 23% cold dark matter, and 73% dark energy. “Spirit” and “Opportunity,” the twin Mars Exploration Rovers, were successfully launched in the summer of 2003. On January 3, 2004, Spirit landed safely on Mars and has since begun to explore the planet; Opportunity followed on January 25. The rovers, working as robotic field geologists, will examine two sites offering a balance of favourable conditions for safe landings and interesting science: Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum. At both sites, the rovers will examine rocks and soils that could hold clues to the wet environments of Mars’ past. Scientists will assess the data to determine whether those environments may have been conducive to life. Additional FY 2003 accomplishments include the successful launch of the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), an orbiting space telescope that will observe galaxies in ultraviolet light across 10 billion years of cosmic history; the confirmation of the oldest known planet by the Hubble Space Telescope; and the detection of regions of magnetic field concentration (which lead to sunspots) on the far side of the Sun by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory through a new technique called helioseismology. Since sunspots are sites of catastrophic solar activity that sometimes affect the Earth, this new the technique allows for early detection of events that may interfere with power and communications systems. On September 21, 2003, the Galileo spacecraft plunged into Jupiter’s atmosphere, ending a historic mission that circled the solar system’s largest planet 34 times. Galileo was the first mission to measure Jupiter’s atmosphere with a descent probe and the first to conduct long-term observations of the Jovian system from orbit. The spacecraft was purposely put on a collision course with Jupiter to eliminate any chance of an unwanted impact between the spacecraft and Jupiter’s moon Europa, which Galileo discovered is likely to have a liquid subsurface ocean.