Telescope likely to 'rewrite astronomy textbooks,' scientists say

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) A new space telescope to be launched in mid-April should open another window on the universe, pulling into focus objects too cold, distant or clouded by dust for other observatories to see, NASA said Tuesday.

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility is the last of NASA's four so-called ``Great Observatories.'' Its launch, planned for April 18, comes 13 years after the first ambitious effort, the Hubble Space Telescope.

The new observatory should examine infrared radiation heat given off by objects throughout the universe, including stars and galaxies farther back in space and time than astronomers have ever peered.

The mission ``will significantly increase our understanding of the universe and will probably rewrite astronomy textbooks, just like the Hubble Space Telescope did,'' Lia La Piana, the mission's program executive at NASA headquarters, said.

Each of the Great Observatories studies the universe in different regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes the rainbow of colors visible to humans, as well as the gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, infrared, microwaves and radio waves we cannot see.

The new telescope will make about 20,000 infrared observations a year during its mission, scheduled to last at least 30 months.

One target will be the dusty discs of debris around distant stars, where new planets may be forming. That work will aid the ongoing search by astronomers for planets like our own capable of sustaining life.

``The observatory will give us a better understanding of the universe and our place within it,'' said Michael Werner, project scientist for the $740 million mission at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The telescope will be launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a Delta II rocket.

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