Infrared telescope

An infrared telescope is a telescope that uses infrared light to see stars and planets. Infrared light is one kind of energy that makes up the electromagnetic spectrum.

Everything in space that has warmth gives off some kind of energy. Scientists use many types of telescopes to study space. These include gamma ray, x-ray, ultra-violet, regular visible light telescopes, and infrared telescopes. Each helps us learn more about the stars, planets, and other objects far away.

Leading discoveries

Important steps helped create the infrared telescope. In 1800, William Herschel discovered that objects give off infrared radiation. In 1878, Samuel Pierpoint Langley built a tool called a bolometer to sense tiny temperature changes.

Later, scientists used special tools to see infrared light from space. These tools needed to be very cold to work well. In the 1950s, they used detectors cooled with liquid nitrogen. By the 1960s, telescopes on balloons and rockets were used to see infrared light from higher up.

Today, infrared telescopes can be on the ground, in the air, or in space. Putting them in space helps avoid problems caused by Earth’s air. One famous space telescope is the James Webb Space Telescope, launched in 2021.

Selective comparison

Visible light has wavelengths from about 0.4 μm to 0.7 μm. Infrared astronomy usually looks at wavelengths from 0.75 μm to 1000 μm (1 mm), which includes far-infrared astronomy and submillimetre astronomy.

Infrared telescopes

Infrared telescopes are special tools that use infrared light to see objects in space. Infrared light is a type of energy that all warm objects give off.

There are infrared telescopes on the ground, in airplanes, and in space. Some well-known ones include the Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, the Kuiper Airborne Observatory, the Spitzer Space Telescope, and the James Webb Space Telescope. These telescopes help us study stars, planets, and other objects in the universe using infrared light.