Infrared telescope

An astronomical telescope that detects infrared radiation from celestial objects. Cooling its optics and detectors can reduce unwanted thermal emission from the instrument and its surroundings.

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Infrared astronomy: The study of celestial objects and processes through their infrared radiation. It is the broader observing field that infrared telescopes serve.
James Webb Space Telescope: A space observatory optimized for infrared astronomy, launched in 2021. Its large, cooled mirror and infrared instruments exemplify modern space-based infrared observing.
Optical telescope: A telescope that collects and focuses visible light from astronomical sources. Optical telescopes target shorter wavelengths and generally face less thermal background than infrared instruments.
Interstellar dust: Tiny solid particles dispersed between stars, which absorb and scatter light and emit infrared radiation. Infrared observations penetrate some dusty regions and measure the dust's own emission.
Reionization: The epoch when the first luminous sources ionized most of the neutral hydrogen in the universe. Infrared observations seek the early galaxies and stars that drove this transition.
Infrared detector: A sensor that converts infrared radiation into a measurable signal. Its sensitivity and noise characteristics shape which faint sources the telescope can detect.
Spitzer Space Telescope: A NASA space telescope that observed the universe in infrared light from 2003 to 2020. Its cryogenic mission mapped infrared sources after launch placed it above Earth's atmosphere.
Radio telescope: A telescope that detects radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation from space. Radio telescopes work at longer wavelengths, often with different detector and atmospheric constraints.
Star formation: The process by which dense regions of interstellar gas and dust collapse to form stars. Infrared telescopes expose embedded protostars hidden from visible-light observatories.
First stars: The earliest generation of stars, formed from nearly pristine gas in the young universe. Their faint, redshifted light is a key target for sensitive infrared observatories.