Night and Day on an Alien World
It's as clear as day and night... but on an exotic alien world! Astronomers have for the first time measured the temperatures varying across the surface of a planet beyond our solar system.
Browse Videos in Hidden Universe: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope
![]() 02.22.18 Homes Away From Home? Revisiting the Seven Planets of TRAPPIST-1One year ago, astronomers announced the discovery that seven roughly Earth-sized worlds orbited around the nearby sta... |
![]() 08.17.17 Brown Dwarf Weather AnnotatedThis artist's concept animation shows a brown dwarf with bands of clouds, thought to resemble those seen on Neptune a... |
![]() 05.03.17 5000 Days in the Life of an Astronomy RobotMay 3rd, 2017 marks the 5,000th day of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission. This video gives us a detailed look at... |
![]() 08.26.16 Spitzer BeyondNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which launched Aug. 25, 2003, will begin an extended mission—the “Beyond” phase—on Oc... |
![]() 03.28.16 The Wild Temperature Swings of an ExoplanetThe exoplanet HD80606 b spends most of its time far from its star, but every 111 days it swings in feverishly close. ... |
![]() 03.20.14 Catching a GLIMPSE of the Milky WayWelcome home! This is our Milky Way galaxy as you’ve never seen it before. Ten years in the making, this is the clear... |
![]() 08.23.13 10 Years of InnovationOn August 25, 2003, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope to reveal secrets of the infrared universe. |
![]() 08.07.12 Possible Nearby Exoplanet Smaller than Earth (Update)Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have detected what they believe is an alien world just two-thirds th... |
![]() 05.21.12 Cygnus X Marks the Spot (Gallery Explorer)Over the last half century this Cygnus X has been yielding its secrets to the scrutiny of infrared observations. NASA... |
![]() 08.23.11 The Galactic Center Revisited (Gallery Explorer)Hiding behind the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius is the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, over 25,000 ligh... |
![]() 02.10.11 The North America Nebula (Gallery Explorer)Seen here in visible light, the North America Nebula strangely resembles its namesake continent. Expanding our view t... |
![]() 12.23.10 The Art of ExoplanetsWhile astronomers have identified over 500 planets around other stars, they’re all too small and distant to fill even... |
![]() 10.07.10 The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (Special)Today's telescopes study the sky across the electromagnetic spectrum. Each part of the spectrum tells us different th... |
![]() 07.09.10 The Dragon and the Swan (Gallery Explorer)Hidden behind a dark veil of dust in the constellation Sagittarius, a lurking dragon has been revealed by the infrare... |
![]() 06.01.10 When Worlds Collide (Showcase)When worlds collide, the result is spectacular, and astronomers think they’ve detected the aftermath of such an event... |
![]() 03.19.10 The Wise Sky (Gallery Explorer)In December of 2009, NASA launched its latest infrared telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This satel... |
![]() 02.05.10 The Many Views of the Milky Way (Gallery Explorer)In May of 2009, the European Space Agency successfully launched the Herschel Space Observatory, a new eye for the inf... |
![]() 11.25.09 The One Ring of Saturn (Showcase)Astronomers have found One Ring to rule them all, not in the land of Mordor, but around Saturn, the Lord of the Rings... |
![]() 09.03.09 Cooking Up Cometary Crystals (Showcase)The fading light of a flaring young star has shed light on a puzzle involving crystals and comets. |
![]() 06.18.09 Orion Nebula (Gallery Explorer)Explore the dusty secrets of the Orion Nebula through Spitzer's infrared vision. |