Los Angeles' Griffith Observatory will host an event on August 22-24, 2008 to celebrate the fifth anniversary of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The Spitzer mission has shown us incredible new views of the universe in infrared light, which can be thought of as "night vision" or "heat" light. Spitzer's accomplishments include imaging the farthest galaxy yet seen, multiple breakthroughs in our understanding of the lives of stars and the first detection of light coming from planets orbiting other stars.

Highlights of the weekend-long event will include an unveiling of a brand new image from Spitzer on Friday afternoon and the outdoor display of a 140-foot-long Spitzer image of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Caltech and JPL Astronomers will be on-hand all three days to answer questions about Spitzer and infrared astronomy, as well as present a series of public lectures in the Leonard Nimoy Event Horizon Theater.