University of California, Berkeley

European Space Agency

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured for the first time enough light from planets outside our solar system, known as exoplanets, to identify molecules in their atmospheres. The landmark achievement is a significant step toward being able to detect possible life on rocky exoplanets and comes years before astronomers had anticipated.

A bunch of rowdy comets are colliding and kicking up dust around a dead star, according to new observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The dead star lies at the center of the much-photographed Helix nebula, a shimmering cloud of gas with an eerie resemblance to a giant eye.

The three iconic space pillars photographed by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope in 1995 might have met their demise, according to new evidence from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

University of California, Berkeley

University of Washington

Gas-giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn form soon after their stars do, according to new research.

New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope strongly suggest that infrared light detected in a prior study originated from clumps of the very first objects of the Universe. The recent data indicate this patchy light is splattered across the entire sky and comes from clusters of bright, monstrous objects more than 13 billion light-years away.

Have supermassive black holes changed since the dawn of our Universe nearly 14 billion years ago?

NASA's Great Observatories -- Spitzer, Hubble, and Chandra -- are working together to unlock the mysterious structure of a supernova remnant in a nearby galaxy.

A new image from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes looks more like an abstract painting than a cosmic snapshot. The masterpiece shows the Orion nebula in an explosion of infrared, ultraviolet, and visible-light colors.

Something scary appears to be slithering across the plane of our Milky Way galaxy in this new Halloween image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The snake-like object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say its "belly" may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming.

Astronomers using NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope have discovered that an exploded star, named Cassiopeia A, blew up in a somewhat orderly fashion, retaining much of its original onion-like layering.

Carnegie Institution of Washington

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have recently identified two quasars, or supermassive black holes, that may be on the verge of a colossal cosmic "belch."

Mark your calendars for The Art of Astronomy, a three-day public event celebrating the collaboration of astronomy and art in Pasadena, California. The event will feature a spectacular slide show of cosmic images, lectures from world-renowned space artists, and a public unveiling of a magnificent new image from NASA's Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes.

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has made the first measurements of the day and night temperatures of a planet outside our solar system. The infrared observatory revealed that the Jupiter-like gas giant planet circling very close to its sun is always as hot as fire on one side, and potentially as cold as ice on the other.

Could all of the asteroids, comets, and planets in our Milky Way galaxy be made of a similar mix of dusty components?

A star must live in a relatively tranquil cosmic neighborhood to foster planet formation, say astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

For a brief moment in 2002, an obscure star called V838 Monocerotis (nicknamed V838 Mon by astronomers) suddenly became 600,000 times brighter than our Sun and temporarily was the brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy. Within a few months, it faded back into obscurity.

Two extremely rare cosmic objects have recently been detected in a shallow survey conducted with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. One is a quasar (or supermassive black hole) located approximately 12.5 billion light-years away. It is so bright that it outshines its entire galaxy. The other is a cold, puny "failed star" called a T-type brown dwarf.

A spectacular new infrared image and spectrum from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals the complex life cycle of young stars, from their dust-shrouded beginnings to their stellar debuts. Observations of this star-forming cloud were taken shortly after Spitzer returned to normal observations following a spacecraft anomaly. The image, which was captured by the telescope's Infrared Array Camera (IRAC), is the most sensitive infrared survey of the cloud to date.

Engineers and scientists working on the recovery team brought NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope out of safe mode and restored it to normal mode late Tues., August 29. The observatory's three science instruments were successfully tested, clearing the way for science observations to resume today, Thurs., August 31. This means Spitzer is back on nominal operations.

A new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is helping astronomers understand how stardust is recycled in galaxies.

In three terrific years, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has peered into the heart of our Milky Way galaxy, detected partial ingredients for DNA in other solar systems, and uncovered evidence that planets might rise from a dead star's ashes.

Engineers are studying data returned by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, to determine what caused the observatory to enter safe mode on Friday, Aug. 18 at 2:52 p.m. Pacific time. After an unexpected reboot of Spitzer's main onboard computer, the spacecraft autonomously followed pre-programmed procedures, switched to the backup electronics system, and entered safe mode. The engineering and science teams have so far found no hardware or software problem to explain the unplanned reboot. In response to the safe mode entry, the Spitzer team has carefully maneuvered the spacecraft, which is in an Earth-trailing orbit around the sun, to point its high-gain antenna toward Earth. This change in attitude enables engineers to receive critical engineering data as quickly as possible. The project's engineers are carefully analyzing the data, trying to determine the next course of action to bring the spacecraft back to nominal operations.

Astronomers have long scrutinized the vast and layered clouds of the Orion nebula, an industrious star-making factory visible to the naked eye in the sword of the famous hunter constellation. Yet, Orion is still full of secrets.

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have found evidence that dusty disks of planet-forming material tug on and slow down the young, whirling stars they surround.