UCF Astronomy Program Ranks Among Best for Time on Spitzer Space Telescope

By Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala April 29, 2008

Astronomers at the University of Central Florida will use the much-coveted Spitzer Space Telescope for more than 81 hours this coming year.

Getting time on the telescope -- the most sensitive infrared instrument in space -- is quite competitive. More than 100 institutions applied for time this year.

UCF’s astronomy program submitted six proposals to the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, which determines who gets the time. The center reviews each proposal, and NASA funds the winners. UCF was approved for five of its six proposals.

“UCF had tremendous success with applications to the Spitzer Space Telescope, and we have done as well or better than larger and better-established programs,” said Humberto Campins, director of the program at UCF. “This bodes well for the future of the Planetary Sciences Group.”

The Spitzer Space Telescope launched in 2003 and is the fourth of NASA’s Great Observatories.

Based on the amount of time granted on the telescope, UCF ranked sixth. The top four institutions were Caltech, Harvard University, the University of Arizona and Cornell University, where the instruments that make up the Spitzer were built.

UCF is in the same league as UCLA, Michigan, Hawaii, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, NASA/Ames Research Center, and the Jet Propulsion Lab.

In the specific category of successful planetary science proposals, UCF was tied for first place with the University of Arizona.

Professors at UCF who will be using the telescope include Campins, Joe Harrington, Mike Kelley and Yan Fernandez. They will use the Spitzer to further investigate a variety of celestial phenomena from asteroids and comets to exoplanets.

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