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...
Life's Starting Materials Found in Dusty Disk
This graph, or spectrum, from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells astronomers that some of the most basic ingredients of DNA and protein are concentrated in a dusty planet-forming disk circling a young sun-like star called IRS 46. These data also indicate that the ingredients -- molecular gases...
A narrow asteroid belt filled with rocks and dusty debris, orbits a star similar to our own Sun when it was approximately 30 million years old (about the time Earth formed). Within the belt a hypothetical planet also circles the star.
Astronomers can detect the presence of disks of dust orbiting distant stars by measuring how the combined light from the star and disk changes across different wavelengths.
Using an automated computer method to sift through data collected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers on the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) team found a new star cluster (inset) in our Milky Way galaxy, in the northern constellation Aquila (main image).
An Infrared Slice of the Milky Way
In visible light, the bulk of our Milky Way galaxy's stars are eclipsed behind thick clouds of galactic dust and gas. But to the infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, distant stars and dust clouds shine with unparalleled clarity and color.
A GLIMPSE of the Milky Way
In visible light, the bulk of our Milky Way galaxy's stars are eclipsed behind thick clouds of galactic dust and gas. But to the infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, distant stars and dust clouds shine with unparalleled clarity and color.
Star Clusters Found in the MIlky Way
A metropolis of stellar activity is captured in these Spitzer infrared images taken by the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) Legacy project.
Using an automated computer method to sift through infrared data collected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers on the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) team found a new star cluster in our Milky Way galaxy.
Using an automated computer method to sift through data collected by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers on the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) team found a new star cluster in our Milky Way galaxy.
Itsy Bitsy Solar System
This artist's conception compares a hypothetical solar system centered around a tiny "sun" (top) to a known solar system centered around a star, called 55 Cancri, which is about the same size as our sun.
Dwarf Galaxies Forming in Tidal Tails
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows little "dwarf galaxies" forming in the "tails" of two larger galaxies that are colliding together.
NGC 1333 in the Infrared
Located 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, a reflection nebula called NGC 1333 epitomizes the beautiful chaos of a dense group of stars being born. Most of the visible light from the young stars in this region is obscured by the dense, dusty cloud in which they formed....
Chaotic Star Birth
Located 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, a reflection nebula called NGC 1333 epitomizes the beautiful chaos of a dense group of stars being born. Most of the visible light from the young stars in this region is obscured by the dense, dusty cloud in which they formed....
Now You See Stars, Now You Don't
The image composite compares an infrared image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to a visible-light picture of the same region (inset). While the infrared view, dubbed "Mountains of Creation," reveals towering pillars of dust aglow with the light of embryonic stars (white/yellow), the...
Hubble Image of the Eagle Nebula
This is an iconic visible-light image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the Eagle Nebula, which also features a star-forming region, or nebula, that is being sculpted into pillars by radiation and winds from hot, massive stars. The Eagle Nebula is part of a much larger region dubbed the...
Visible Light Image of W5
This is a visible-light picture of the region dubbed the "Mountains of Creation."
Towering Infernos
This majestic false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the "mountains" where stars are born. Dubbed "Mountains of Creation" by Spitzer scientists, these towering pillars of cool gas and dust are illuminated at their tips with light from warm, embryonic stars.
W5 in the Infrared
This image shows an infrared data taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of a region dubbed the "Mountains of Creation." Towering pillars of dust are aglow with the light of embryonic stars (white/yellow). The added detail in the Spitzer image reveals a dynamic region in the process of evolving...
Fiery First Stars
The top panel is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stars and galaxies in the constellation Draco, covering about 50 by 100 million light-years (6 to 12 arcminutes). The bottom panel is the resulting image after all the stars, galaxies and artifacts were masked out. The remaining...
Fiery First Stars
This is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of stars and galaxies in the constellation Draco, covering about 50 by 100 million light-years (6 to 12 arcminutes).
Fiery First Stars
This is an image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of a region of sky in the constellation Draco, covering about 50 by 100 million light-years (6 to 12 arcminutes). In this image all the stars, galaxies and artifacts were masked out. The remaining background reveals a glow that is not...
This artist's concept shows what the very early universe might have looked like, just after its first stars began bursting onto the scene.
Visible Light Image of the "Black Widow Nebula"
In the constellation Circinus, this visible-light observations by the Digital Sky Survey reveals only a faint hourglass-shaped patch of obscuring dust and gas. In the infrared, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope's dust-piercing eyes see a big "Black Widow Nebula" teeming with clusters of massive...
Infrared Black Widow Nebula
In the constellation Circinus, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope's dust-piercing eyes uncovers a big "Black Widow Nebula" teeming with clusters of massive young stars.
Black Widow Nebula Hiding in the Dust
In the constellation Circinus, where previous visible-light observations by the Digital Sky Survey (left) saw only a faint hourglass-shaped patch of obscuring dust and gas, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope's dust-piercing eyes see a big "Black Widow Nebula" teeming with clusters of massive young...
A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years
These spectacular infrared images, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulate one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe.
Spitzer SWIRE Field ELAIS-N1
This spectacular infrared image, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulates one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe.
Spitzer/SWIRE View of CGCG 275-022
This spectacular infrared image, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulates one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe.
Spitzer/SWIRE View of the Tadpole Galaxy
This spectacular infrared image of the "Tadpole" galaxy, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulates one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or...
Spitzer/SWIRE Zoomed View of ELIAS-N1
This spectacular infrared image, taken by the Spitzer Wide-area Infrared Extragalactic (SWIRE) Legacy project, encapsulates one of the primary objectives of the Spitzer mission: to connect the evolution of galaxies from the distant, or early, universe to the nearby, or present day, universe.
This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the spectra (middle four lines) of dusty disks around four brown dwarfs, or "failed stars," located 520 light-years away in the Chamaeleon constellation. The data suggest that the dust in these disks is crystallizing and clumping...
This artist's concept shows microscopic crystals in the dusty disk surrounding a brown dwarf, or "failed star." The crystals, made up of a green mineral found on Earth called olivine, are thought to help seed the formation of planets.
Andromeda in the Infrared
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured stunning infrared views of the famous Andromeda galaxy to reveal insights that were only hinted at in visible light.
Andromeda
This visible-light image of the Andromeda galaxy shows the starlight from our nearby galactic neighbor.
Three Faces of Andromeda
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured stunning infrared views of the famous Andromeda galaxy to reveal insights that were only hinted at in visible light.
Spitzer/MIPS View of the Andromeda Galaxy
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured stunning infrared views of the famous Andromeda galaxy to reveal insights that were only hinted at in visible light.
Big Galaxy in Baby Universe
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 is not seen in Hubble's visible-light image, but was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. It appears even...
Hubble Visible Light View of "Baby" Galaxy in the Distant Universe
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 is not seen in this Hubble visible-light image, but was detected in separate images using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object...
Hubble Visible-Light and Near-Infrared View of a "Baby" Galaxy in the Distant Universe
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 is not seen in a companion Hubble visible-light image, but was detected in this image using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object...
Spitzer Infrared View of a "Baby" Galaxy in the Distant Universe
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 is not seen in a companion Hubble visible-light image, but was detected in a separate image using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object...
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
This is the deepest image of the universe ever made at optical and near-infrared wavelengths. A galaxy, named HUDF-JD2, was pinpointed among approximately 10,000 others in this small area of sky called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field. Using data from NASA's Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, this...
Spitzer and Hubble Team up to Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Distant Universe
This image demonstrates how data from two of NASA's Great Observatories, the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes, are used to identify one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. This galaxy is unusually massive for its youthful age of 800 million years (after the Big Bang. The Milky Way by...
Big Galaxy in Baby Universe
NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes combined forces to uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever seen. The faraway galaxy, named HUDF-JD2 is not seen in Hubble's visible-light image, but was detected using Hubble's near infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer. It appears even...
NGC 3351 (M95)
This image of galaxy NGC 3351, located approximately 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC).
NGC 7793
Galaxy NGC 7793, located approximately 10 million light-years away, is a member of the Sculptor group of galaxies. This galaxy cluster, named after the constellation in which it resides, is one of the closest to our own Local Group of galaxies. This image was captured as part of the Spitzer...
NGC 2976
The nearby galaxy NGC 2976, located approximately 10 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major near the Big Dipper, was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the telescope's Infrared Array Camera
NGC 1566
This beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1566, located approximately 60 million light-years away in the constellation Dorado was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC).
NGC 3627 (M66)
This image of spiral galaxy NGC 3627, also known as Messier 66, was captured by the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy Survey (SINGS) Legacy Project using the Spitzer Space Telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC).
Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have gathered the most detailed data yet on a gap in a protoplanetary, or planet-forming, disk surrounding a young star.
Astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Deep Impact mission are putting together a recipe for comet "soup" -- the primordial stuff of planets, comets, and other bodies in our solar system.
Tempel 1's Secret Ingredients Revealed
This graph shows the two spectra acquired by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope before (middle) and after (bottom) it observed NASA's Deep Impact smash into comet Tempel 1. Above them is a past spectrum of comet Hale-Bopp, which illustrates the extra detail seen by Spitzer in Tempel 1.
Hungry for a comet? Perhaps not, but astronomers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Deep Impact mission are putting together a recipe for comet "soup" -- the primordial stuff of planets, comets, and other bodies in our solar system.
NGC 4725
On August 25, 2003, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope blasted into the same dark skies it now better understands. In just two years, the observatory's infrared eyes have uncovered a hidden universe teeming with warm stellar embryos,chaotic planet-forming disks, and majestic galaxies, including the...
Milky Way Bar (annotated)
This artist's rendering shows a view of our own Milky Way Galaxy and its central bar as it might appear if viewed from above.
Milky Way Bar
This artist's rendering shows a view of our own Milky Way Galaxy and its central bar as it might appear if viewed from above.
Planet X: New Member of our Solar System
This artist's concept shows the planet catalogued as 2003UB313 at the lonely outer fringes of our solar system. The new planet, which is yet to be formally named, is at least as big as Pluto and about three times farther away from the Sun than Pluto.
This false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a distant galaxy (yellow) that houses a quasar, a super-massive black hole circled by a ring, or torus, of gas and dust. Spitzer's infrared eyes cut through the dust to find this hidden object, which appears to be a member of the...
This graph, or spectrum, charts light from a faraway galaxy located 10 billion light years from Earth. It tracks mid-infrared light from an extremely luminous galaxy when the universe was only 1/4 of its current age.
This artist's conception symbolically represents complex organic molecules, known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, seen in the early universe. These large molecules, comprised of carbon and hydrogen, are considered among the building blocks of life.
Disk Around Red Dward Stars in the Stephenson 34 System
Astronomers were surprised to discover a 25-million-year-old protoplanetary disk around a pair of red dwarf stars 350 light-years away. Gravitational stirring by the binary star system may have prevented planet formation.