Editing IRAS (section)

== Discoveries ==
[[File:IRAS in orbit.jpg|thumb|IRAS made its observations from Earth orbit in 1983]]
Overall, over a quarter million discrete targets were observed during its operations, both inside and beyond the [[Solar System]].<ref name="springer" /> In addition, new objects were discovered including asteroids and comets.<ref name="springer" />
The observatory made headlines briefly with the announcement on 10 December 1983 of the discovery of an "unknown object" at first described as "possibly as large as the giant planet [[Jupiter]] and possibly so close to [[Earth]] that it would be part of this solar system".<ref>{{cite news |url=http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/washington_post_mystery_object.html |title=Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |first=Thomas |last=O'Toole |page=A1 |date=30 December 1983 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100201211608/http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/washington_post_mystery_object.html |archive-date=1 February 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Za80AAAAIBAJ&pg=6060,3461403 |title=Mystery heavenly body found close to Earth |work=[[Montreal Gazette|The Gazette]] |agency=[[Washington Post]] |page=A-1 |date=30 December 1983 |access-date=16 October 2012}}</ref> Further analysis revealed that, of several unidentified objects, nine were distant galaxies and the tenth was "[[infrared cirrus|intergalactic cirrus]]".<ref name="Chester-Caltech">{{cite web |url=http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/no_tenth_planet_yet.html |title=No Tenth Planet Yet From IRAS |publisher=Caltech |first=Thomas J. |last=Chester |date=5 May 1998 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100202054332/http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/no_tenth_planet_yet.html |archive-date=2 February 2010}}</ref> None were found to be Solar System bodies.<ref name="Chester-Caltech"/><ref name="PlanetX">{{cite web |url=http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/science.html |title=The Planet X Saga: Science |work=Bad Astronomy |first=Phil |last=Plait |author-link=Phil Plait |date=17 November 2010 |access-date=5 March 2011}}</ref>

During its mission, IRAS (and later the Spitzer Space Telescope) detected odd infrared signatures around several stars. This led to the systems being targeted by the Hubble Space Telescope's NICMOS instrument between 1999 and 2006, but nothing was detected. In 2014, using new image processing techniques on the Hubble data, researchers discovered [[debris disk|planetary disks]] around these stars.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/press/2014/april/astronomical-forensics-uncover-planetary-disks-in-nasas-hubble-archive/ |title=Astronomical Forensics Uncover Planetary Disks in NASA's Hubble Archive |publisher=NASA |first1=J. D. |last1=Harrington |first2=Ray |last2=Villard |date=24 April 2014 |access-date=30 November 2016 |id=NASA Release 14-114}}</ref>

IRAS discovered six comets, out of total of 22 discoveries and recoveries of all comets that year.<ref name="springer" /><ref>{{Cite journal|url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1986QJRAS..27..102M|title=1986QJRAS..27..102M Page 102|journal=Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society|bibcode=1986QJRAS..27..102M|access-date=2019-09-30|last1=Marsden |first1=B. G. |year=1986 |volume=27 |page=102 }}</ref> This was a lot for this period, before the launch of [[Solar and Heliospheric Observatory|SOHO]] in 1995, which would allow the discovery of many more comets in the next decade (it would detect 1000 comets in ten years).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/1000comet.html|title=NASA - History's Greatest Comet Hunter Discovers 1,000th Comet|website=www.nasa.gov|language=en|access-date=2019-09-30|archive-date=2020-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200423200505/https://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/1000comet.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

=== Asteroid discoveries ===
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 0.9em; width: 270px;"
|+ [[Minor planet]]s discovered: 4&thinsp;<ref name="MPC-Discoverers" />
|-
| [[3200 Phaethon]] || 11 October 1983|| {{small|{{LoMP|3200|list}}}}
|-
| [[3728 IRAS]] || 23 August 1983|| {{small|{{LoMP|3728|list}}}}
|-
| {{mp|(10714) 1983 QG}} || 31 August 1983|| {{small|{{LoMP|10714|list}}}}
|-
| {{mp|(100004) 1983 VA}} || 1 November 1983|| {{small|{{LoMP|100004|list}}}}
|}