[gomaaa]

I have friends who worked on the one of detectors for this thing! Very cool stuff. Lots of potential for big discoveries.

[NormsRevenge]

A couple of shots at this link. Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF)

Pretty cool .. 8-\

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

NASA's Origins Program follows the chain of events that began with the birth of the Universe at the Big Bang. It seeks to understand the entire process of cosmic evolution from the formation of chemical elements, galaxies, stars and planets, through the mixing of chemicals and energy that cradles life on Earth, to the earliest self-replicating organisms and the profusion of life. In short, Origins hopes to answer the fundamental questions: Where did we come from? Are we alone?

They need to hurry:

'Phantom menace' may rip up cosmos

[Physicist]

There was a contest to name this telescope a couple of years back. Evidently they have yet to pick a winner.

The name I submitted was "Shapley" (after the astronomer Harlow Shapley).

[Ken522]

So like how is the satellite going to transmit its data to Earth when it is on the other side of the sun? The article said it'll be in a independent orbit around the sun behind the earth ... dazed and confused ...

[Rain-maker]

http://sirtf.caltech.edu/index.shtml   (click for larger images)