Space and Astronomy Atlas

How The Universe Works
Observatories and Instruments

Infrared Astronomical Satellite

Space-Based Observatories

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A joint US, Dutch and British space telescope launched in 1983 as the first orbiting observatory to survey the entire sky in infrared light, discovering hundreds of thousands of new infrared sources including newly forming stars and dusty debris disks around other stars. It operated for only ten months before its coolant was exhausted, but its all-sky catalog remained a standard reference for decades.

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