The Spitzer and Kepler space telescopes
Two retired space-based telescopes, Spitzer and Kepler, would be a great fit for our museum. NASA’s infrared Spitzer worked from 2003 to 2020, collecting astronomical data about stellar nurseries, hot Jupiters, and distant stars, among other celestial phenomena. NASA’s Kepler, in operation from 2009 to 2018, was an intrepid planet hunter, helping astronomers to identify more than 2,600 exoplanets. Spitzer and Kepler remain in space, with the former trailing Earth along its orbit and the latter in orbit around the Sun.
