It looks like a dog that came back from a vet visit. And just like with the dog, this collar will protect the new SPHEREx space telescope. After a series of delays, it finally successfully launched today! THREAD 🧵👇 - ThreadSky

polarandycz.bsky.social • 66 days ago

It looks like a dog that came back from a vet visit. And just like with the dog, this collar will protect the new SPHEREx space telescope. After a series of delays, it finally successfully launched today!

THREAD 🧵👇

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polarandycz.bsky.social•66 days ago

SPHEREx will observe the universe in the infrared spectrum. This kind of radiation emits anything that has any temperature. Even you. 🌡️ 🙃 We just can’t see it. But SPHEREx will see it. Thanks to this collar.

polarandycz.bsky.social•66 days ago

This collar will passively cool down the mirror and the detector. Protecting them from the heat of the Sun and Earth. The colder the instruments are, the weaker the sources of IR radiation can detect.

polarandycz.bsky.social•66 days ago

For exactly the same reason, its older and more capable brother - JWST - is protected in this way, but much better. His devices are also actively cooled.

polarandycz.bsky.social•66 days ago

The JWST is thus passively undercooled to -223 °C, but the MIRI device to -267 °C (REALLY cold). SPHEREx "only" to -210 °C. But that's enough for him...

polarandycz.bsky.social•66 days ago

The IR spectrum is of interest to astronomers mainly because it passes through the universe much better. For example, dust clouds are much more penetrable than for visible radiation.

polarandycz.bsky.social•66 days ago

Moreover, as the universe is constantly expanding, it causes that the further an object is from us, the faster it moves away from us. And when it's really far away, billions of light years away, the light that such an object emits is already shifted into the IR spectrum because of that.

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