![]() ![]() Additionally, Spitzer’s report notes that a telescope in space would allow for detailed observations in infrared and ultraviolet light, wavelengths largely blocked by Earth’s atmosphere. This way, Spitzer argued, astronomers could bypass the obscuring effects of Earth’s turbulent atmosphere, allowing for views of the cosmos with unprecedented resolution. ![]() government should launch a large telescope into space. military, Spitzer published a report titled “ Astronomical Advantages of an Extra-Terrestrial Observatory,” which proposed the U.S. ![]() In 1946, after becoming part of a think-tank set up by the U.S. Following the war, Spitzer ventured back to Yale to briefly continue his tenure as a professor. There, he helped carry out valuable underwater sound research which ultimately led to the development of sonar technology. Navy’s Division of War Research at Columbia University. joined World War II, Spitzer was recruited by the U.S. At this point, he was only in his mid 20s.Īfter the U.S. He then spent a year as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard before earning a faculty position at Yale in 1939. Always eager to learn, Spitzer spent much of his early adult life hopping between some of the United States’ most prestigious universities.Īccording to a detailed article from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Spitzer earned a bachelor’s degree in physics from Cambridge University in 1935, a master’s degree from Princeton in 1937, and a Ph.D. Who was Lyman Spitzer?Ī relative of inventor Eli Whitney, Lyman Strong Spitzer, Jr. In addition to a slew of valuable contributions to astrophysics, Spitzer is recognized as the first person to propose launching a large telescope into space to help us get a better view of the cosmos. who is often considered one of the most renowned scientists of the 20th century. The Spitzer Space Telescope’s intriguing name pays homage to an astrophysicist named Lyman Strong Spitzer, Jr. But one astronomical instrument that only sounds like an acronym is Spitzer, a space telescope that’s spent the past 16 years scouring the heavens for infrared light. Astronomy uses a lot of acronyms - some clever, some silly. ![]()
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