The Spitzer Space Telescope (formally SIRTF) is the fourth and final of NASA's Great Observatories which include the Hubble Space Telescope, the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. Spitzer was launched on August 25 2003 from the Kennedy Space Center and is currently the largest infrared telescope in space.
The Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) is part of the Spitzer Legacy Science Program and is using Spitzer to to survey the inner part of the Galaxy at 3.6, 4.5, 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The GLIMPSE team, located at the University of Wisconsin, is headed by Dr. Ed Churchwell.
Our group is using the GLIMPSE data to study Planetary Nebulae (PN) in the new wavelengths and superior resolution offered by Spitzer.
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