This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colors and eerie resemblance to a giant eye. The nebula, located about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, belongs to a class...
Distant Galaxy Clusters
Astronomers have discovered nearly 300 galaxy clusters and groups, including almost 100 located 8 to 10 billion light-years away, using the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory.
Stellar Jets
This artist concept illustrates jets of material shooting out from the neutron star in the interacting binary system 4U 0614+091.
Baby Stars Brewing in the Witch Head Nebula
Eight hundred light-years away in the Orion constellation, a gigantic murky cloud called the "Witch Head Nebula" is teeming with dust-obscured newborn stars waiting to be uncovered.
Finding Faint Galaxies
When one galaxy wont do the trick, perhaps 20,000 will do. Stacking faint galaxies seen at 24 microns (left, blue) allows observers to securely detect "invisible" galaxies at 70 microns (middle, green) and 160 microns (right, red) which are not detected individually.
The (Almost) Invisible Aftermath of a Massive Star's Death
For the universe's biggest stars, even death is a show. Massive stars typically end their lives in explosive cataclysms, or supernovae, flinging abundant amounts of hot gas and radiation into outer space. Remnants of this shy star's supernova would have gone completely unnoticed if the...
Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the sun. The flame-like objects are the comet's fragments and their tails, while the dusty comet trail is the line...
The (Almost) Invisible Aftermath of a Massive Star's Death
For the universe's biggest stars, even death is a show. However in this visible light image, a supernova remnant detected in a companion infrared image from Spitzer is not seen.
A Million Comet Pieces
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the sun. The flame-like objects are the comet's fragments and their tails, while the dusty comet trail is the line...
The (Almost) Invisible Aftermath of a Massive Star's Death
For the universe's biggest stars, even death is a show. In this Spitzer mid-infrared light image, a supernova remnant, invisible in companion visible and near-infrared images, is detected.
The (Almost) Invisible Aftermath of a Massive Star's Death
For the universe's biggest stars, even death is a show. In this Spitzer near-infrared light image, a supernova remnant detected in a companion mid-infrared image is not seen.
Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the broken Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3 skimming along a trail of debris left during its multiple trips around the sun. The flame-like objects are the comet's fragments and their tails, while the dusty comet trail is the line...
Comet Stepping Stones
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows three of the many fragments making up Comet 73P/Schwassman-Wachmann 3. The infrared picture also provides the best look yet at the crumbling comet's trail of debris, seen here as a bridge connecting the larger fragments.
NGC 2207 and IC 2163 Revealed by Spitzer
Something appears to be peering through a shiny red mask, in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The mysterious blue eyes are actually starlight from the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163. The mask is the galaxies' dusty spiral arms.
Eye in the Sky
These shape-shifting galaxies have taken on the form of a giant mask. The icy blue eyes are actually the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163, and the mask is their spiral arms. The false-colored image consists of infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and...
Spitzer and Hubble View of NGC 2207 and IC 2163
These shape-shifting galaxies have taken on the form of a giant mask. The icy blue eyes are actually the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163, and the mask is their spiral arms. The false-colored image consists of infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (red) and...
Ready for the Cosmic Ball
Something appears to be peering through a shiny red mask, in this new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The mysterious blue eyes are actually starlight from the cores of two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163. The mask is the galaxies' dusty spiral arms.
M82: Great Observatories Present Rainbow of a Galaxy
NASA's Spitzer, Hubble, and Chandra space observatories teamed up to create this multi-wavelength view of the M82 galaxy.
This graphic demonstrates how the 24 micron images (shown in blue) of over 20,000 faint galaxies were added up to create a detectable signal at longer wavelengths.
Extreme Planets
This artist's concept depicts a planetary system discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992 around a pulsar.
Circle of Ashes
This plot tells astronomers that a pulsar, the remnant of a stellar explosion, is surrounded by a disk of its own ashes. The disk, revealed by the two data points at the far right from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, is the first ever found around a pulsar. Astronomers believe planets might rise...
Stellar Rubble May Be Planetary Building Blocks
This artist's concept depicts a type of dead star called a pulsar and the surrounding disk of rubble discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Distant "SCUBA" Galaxy
This series of deep images shows the small field surrounding the brightest SCUBA galaxy (CUDSS 14.1) in this study at six wavelengths. From left to right, these images were taken at, first, R band using the Subaru telescope, then 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8.0 mi
Distant Galaxy Cluster
This distant galaxy cluster was discovered using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Distant Galaxy Cluster
This distant galaxy cluster was discovered using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Great Galactic Buddies
Like great friends, galaxies stick together. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have spotted a handful of great galactic pals bonding back when the universe was a mere 4.6 billion years old. The universe is believed to be 13.7 billion years old.
Distant Galaxy Cluster
This distant galaxy cluster was discovered using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Distant Galaxy Cluster
This distant galaxy cluster was discovered using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Visible Light Image of Messier 82
This image is a visible-light view of the "Cigar galaxy", Messier 82.
Spitzer Unveils a Cosmic "Cigar": Messier 82
This image shows the infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of the galaxy Messier 82.
A Shocking Surprise in Stephan's Quintet
This false-color composite image of the Stephan's Quintet galaxy cluster clearly shows one of the largest shock waves ever seen (green arc), produced by one galaxy falling toward another at over a million miles per hour. It is made up of data from NASA's
A Shocking Surprise in Stephan's Quintet
This false-color composite image of the Stephan's Quintet galaxy cluster clearly shows one of the largest shock waves ever seen (green arc), produced by one galaxy falling toward another at over a million miles per hour. It is made up of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and a ground-based...
This artist's concept shows the violent core of a pair of colliding galaxies and the delicate greenish crystals that are sprinkled throughout the core.
Crystal Storm in Distant Galaxy
This graph of infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells astronomers that a distant galaxy called IRAS 08752+3915 is experiencing a storm of tiny crystals made up of silicates. The crystals are similar to the glass-like grains of sand found on Earth's many beaches.
NGC 4579
Galaxy NGC 4579 was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC). In this image, the red structures are areas where gas and dust are thought to be forming new stars, while the blue light comes from...
Monstrous disks like this one were discovered around two "hypergiant" stars by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Astronomers believe these disks might contain the early "seeds" of planets, or possibly leftover debris from planets that already formed.
Supersized Disk
This illustration compares the size of a gargantuan star and its surrounding dusty disk (top) to that of our solar system.
This illustration compares the size of a gargantuan star and its surrounding dusty disk (top) to that of our solar system.
Little Dust Grains in Giant Stellar Disks
This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the composition of a monstrous disk of what may be planet-forming dust circling the colossal "hypergiant" star called R 66. The disk contains complex organic molecules called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as well as silicate dust...
The Mark of a Dying Star
Six hundred and fifty light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, a dead star about the size of Earth, is refusing to fade away peacefully. In death, it is spewing out massive amounts of hot gas and intense ultraviolet radiation, creating a spectacula object called a "planetary nebula."
Spitzer Infrared View of Herbig-Haro 49/50: A Cosmic Tornado
This "tornado," designated Herbig-Haro 49/50, is shaped by a cosmic jet packing a powerful punch as it plows through clouds of interstellar gas and dust.
Cosmic Tornado
This "tornado," designated Herbig-Haro 49/50, is shaped by a cosmic jet packing a powerful punch as it plows through clouds of interstellar gas and dust.
Cartwheel Galaxy Makes Waves
This multi-wavelength composite image shows the Cartwheel galaxy as seen by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer's Far Ultraviolet detector (blue); the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera-2 in B-band visible light (green); the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC)...
Evidence for Comets Found in Dead Star
This graph of data, or spectrum, from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicates that a dead star, or white dwarf, called G29-38, is shrouded by a cloud of dust. The data also demonstrate that this dust contains some of the same types of minerals found in comet Hale-Bopp.
The Milky Way Center Aglow with Dust
Our Milky Way is a dusty place. So dusty, in fact, that we cannot see the center of the galaxy in visible light. But when NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes on the galactic center, it captured this spectacular view.
A Cauldron of Stars at the Galaxy's Center
This dazzling infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy. In visible-light pictures, this region cannot be seen at all because dust lying between Earth and the galactic center blocks our view.
This artist concept shows a debris disk in a cataclysmic variable system which consists of a highly magnetic white dwarf star (a "dead" remnant star formed from the core of a star like our Sun when it exhausts the available fuel to support nuclear fusion) and a very low-mass, cool object similar...
Spitzer View of the Center of the Milky Way
This dazzling infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy.
Spitzer 8.0 micron View of the Milky Way Center
Our Milky Way is a dusty place. So dusty, in fact, that we cannot see the center of the galaxy in visible light. But when NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes on the galactic center, it captured this spectacular view. But when NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes...
Infrared Helix
The Helix Nebula, which is composed of gaseous shells and disks puffed out by a dying sunlike star, exhibits complex structure on the smallest visible scales. In this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, infrared light at wavelengths of 3.6, 4.5, and 8.0 microns has been colored blue,...
Artist's Impression of Massive Star Cluster
This is an illustration of one of the most massive star clusters within our Milky Way Galaxy, containing 14 rare red supergiant stars and an estimated an estimated 20,000 stars. In the background at the 12:00 position is a distant region of stars called W 42.
The sky is a jewelry box full of sparkling stars in these infrared images. The crown jewels are 14 massive stars on the verge of exploding as supernovae.
The Infrared Helix
The Helix Nebula, which is composed of gaseous shells and disks puffed out by a dying sunlike star, exhibits complex structure on the smallest visible scales. In this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, infrared light at wavelengths of 3.6, 4.5, and 8.0 microns has been colored blue,...
Spitzer and Hubble View of the Helix Nebula
In this false-color image, NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes have teamed up to capture the complex structure of the Helix nebula, in unprecedented detail. The composite picture is made up of visible data from Hubble and infrared data from Spitzer.
A Hidden, Massive Star Cluster Awash with Red Supergiants
The sky is a jewelry box full of sparkling stars in these infrared images. The crown jewels are 14 massive stars on the verge of exploding as supernovae. This image, a false-color composite, was captured by the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS).
The sky is a jewelry box full of sparkling stars in these infrared images. The crown jewels are 14 massive stars on the verge of exploding as supernovae.
NGC 2264 in the Infrared
Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this image of a section of the Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, created in joint effort between Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instruments.
Spitzer/MIPS View of NGC 2264
Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this infrared image of a section of the Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Spitzer/IRAC View of NGC 2264
Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this infrared image of a section of the Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Stellar Snowflake Cluster
Newborn stars, hidden behind thick dust, are revealed in this image of a section of the Christmas Tree Cluster from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, created in joint effort between Spitzer's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) and Multiband Imaging Photometer (MIPS) instruments.
Portrait of Our Dusty Past
This artist's concept illustrates a solar system that is a much younger version of our own. Dusty disks, like the one shown here circling the star, are thought to be the breeding grounds of planets, including rocky ones like Earth.