The Light and Dark Sides of a Distant Planet
The top graph consists of infrared data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. It tells astronomers that a distant planet, called Upsilon Andromedae b, always has a giant hot spot on the side that faces the star, while the other side is cold and dark. The artist's concepts above the graph...
This is an artist's concept of a hypothetical 10-million-year-old star system. The bright blur at the center is a star much like our sun. The other orb in the image is a gas-giant planet like Jupiter. Wisps of white throughout the image represent traces of gas.
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...
Spitzer/MIPS View of the Trifid Nebula
The glowing Trifid Nebula is revealed with a mid-infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The Trifid Nebula is a giant star-forming cloud of gas and dust located 5,400 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius.
This artist's conception illustrates the brown dwarf named 2MASSJ22282889-431026.
A growing black hole, called a quasar, can be seen at the center of a faraway galaxy in this artist's concept. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes discovered swarms of similar quasars hiding in dusty galaxies in the distant universe.
This artist concept illustrates how a massive collision of objects, perhaps as large as the planet Pluto, smashed together to create the dust ring around the nearby star Vega. New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicate the collision took place within the last one million years.
Large Magellanic Cloud in the Infrared
This vibrant image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy.
Bright Lights, Green City
Two extremely bright stars illuminate a greenish mist in this and other images from the new GLIMPSE360 survey.
How to Measure Exoplanet Light
These plots from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show light from a distant planet, GJ 436b, and its star, as measured at six different infrared wavelengths.
Spitzer Celebrates Fourth Anniversary with Celestial Fireworks
A newly expanded image of the Helix nebula lends a festive touch to the fourth anniversary of the launch of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Finding 'Yellowballs' in our Milky Way
Volunteers using the web-based Milky Way Project brought star-forming features nicknamed "yellowballs" to the attention of researchers, who later showed that they are a phase of massive star formation.
Jupiter-Family Comet Shoemaker-Levy 3
This infrared image of the Jupiter-family comet Shoemaker-Levy 3 was taken with Spitzer's multiband imaging photometer (MIPS) at a wavelength of 24 microns.
Brown Dwarf Microlensing Illustration
This illustration depicts a newly discovered brown dwarf, an object that weighs in somewhere between our solar system's most massive planet (Jupiter) and the least-massive known star, that was discovered through gravitational microlensing.
"The further on the edge, the hotter the intensity," sings Kenny Loggins in "Danger Zone," a song made famous by the movie "Top Gun." The same words ring true for young, cooler stars like our sun that live in the danger zones around scorching hot stars, called O-stars. The closer a young,...
Weighing in on the Dumbbell Nebula
The Dumbbell nebula, also known as Messier 27, pumps out infrared light in this image from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope. It was discovered in 1764 by Charles Messier, who included it as the 27th member of his famous catalog of nebulous objects. Though he did not know it at the time, this was...
Ghostly Stellar Echoes in Supernova Remnant Cassiopeia A
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope highlights dramatic changes in phenomena referred to as light echoes around the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was able to detect a super Earth's direct light for the first time using its sensitive heat-seeking infrared vision. Super Earths are more massive than Earth but lighter than gas giants like Neptune.
A Shocking Outflow
This image shows an outflow of gas from a new star as it jets from a space object dubbed IRAS 21078+5211, among other designations.
Dark Globule in IC 1396
This image shows a visible light view of the Elephant's Trunk Nebula, an elongated dark globule within the emission nebula IC 1396 in the constellation of Cepheus.
Distant Galaxy Cluster
This distant galaxy cluster was discovered using data from the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz.
Detecting the Infrared Glow of a Dark World
This infographic illustrates how astronomers using NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope observations of the LHS 3844b system could deduce how much of the combined infrared light came from the Earth-sized exoplanet.
The Tarantula Nebula
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured in stunning detail the spidery filaments and newborn stars of the Tarantula Nebula, a rich star-forming region also known as 30 Doradus. This cloud of glowing dust and gas is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the nearest galaxy to our own Milky...
Bow Shocks in Space G050.35
Bow shocks thought to mark the paths of massive, speeding stars are highlighted in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
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...
How to Find a Planetary Hot Spot
This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows how astronomers located a hot spot on a distant gas planet named upsilon Andromedae b -- and learned that it was in the wrong place.
Supersized Disk
This illustration compares the size of a gargantuan star and its surrounding dusty disk (top) to that of our solar system.
In our solar system, anybody observing the skies on a moonless night far from city lights can see the sunlight that is scattered by dust in our asteroid belt. Called zodiacal light and sometimes the "false dawn," this light appears in this artist's concept as a dim band stretching up from the...
Fomalhaut
This NASA Spitzer Space Telescope image of Fomalhaut, the 18th brightest star in the sky, shows its surrounding dust disc for the first time in the infrared. This image is a composite of data taken at 24 and 70 microns.
TRAPPIST-1 Compared to Jovian Moons and Inner Solar System - Feb. 2018
All seven planets discovered in orbit around the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 could easily fit inside the orbit of Mercury, the innermost planet of our solar system. In fact, the proportions of the TRAPPIST-1 system look more like Jupiter and its moons.
A plot of the transmission spectrum for exoplanet HAT-P-11b, with data from NASA's Kepler, Hubble and Spitzer observatories combined. The results show a robust detection of water absorption in the Hubble data. Transmission spectra of selected atmospheric models are plotted for comparison.
'Eta twins' in Galaxy M83
Hubble view of M83 -- the only galaxy known to host two potential "Eta twins." Its high rate of star formation increases the chances of finding massive stars that have recently undergone an Eta Carinae-like outburst. Bottom: Hubble data showing the locations of M83's Eta twins.
Protoplanetary Disk Evaporation
The potential planet-forming disk (or "protoplanetary disk") of a sun-like star is being violently ripped away by the powerful winds of a nearby hot O-type star in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The Eagle Nebula in Infrared
This infrared view of the Eagle Nebula contrasts the hot dust of a supernova with cooler regions of star formation.
Visible Light View of the M17 Nebula
This visible-light view of the sky highlights the bright M17 nebula, as well as the glowing hot gas filling the "bubble" to its left.
Galactic Pyrotechnics on Display
A galaxy about 23 million light-years away is the site of impressive, ongoing, fireworks. Rather than paper, powder, and fire, this galactic light show involves a giant black hole, shock waves, and vast reservoirs of gas.
Spitzer Spectra of Protoplanetary Discs
Using sensitive instruments onboard NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have seen the first building blocks of planets, and possibly future life, deep within dusty discs around young stars. The image shows spectra, obtained by Spitzer's infrared spectrograph, of two stars that are so young...
Planetary Building Blocks Found in Surprising Place
This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows that an extraordinarily low-mass brown dwarf, or "failed star," is circled by a disk of planet-building dust. The brown dwarf, called OTS 44, is only 15 times the mass of Jupiter, making it the smallest known brown dwarf to host a...
Hubble View of Kepler's Supernova Remnant - SN 1604
This image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the expanding remains of a supernova, called Kepler's supernova remnant, first seen 400 years ago by sky watchers, including famous astronomer Johannes Kepler.
Older Galaxy Pair Has Surprisingly Youthful Glow
Arp 82, a pair of interacting galaxies, bask in the glow of newly forming stars, something the two pre-collision galaxies seem to have lacked. With this discovery, Spitzer shows the strong link between galaxy interaction and star formation.
Cold and Quick: a Fast-Moving Brown Dwarf
This 4-panel image shows the coldest brown dwarf yet seen, and the fourth closest system to our sun. Called WISE J085510.83-071442.5, this dim object was discovered through its rapid motion across the sky.
Sombrero Galaxy Not So Flat After All
New observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal the Sombrero galaxy is not simply a regular flat disk galaxy of stars as previously believed, but a more round elliptical galaxy with a flat disk tucked inside.
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)...
Ultraluminous Galaxy Merger NGC 6240
This image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240 shows them in a rare, short-lived phase of their evolution just before they merge into a single, larger galaxy.
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...
Spitzer/IRAC image of Star Formation in Henize 206
Within the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), a nearby and irregularly-shaped galaxy seen in the Southern Hemisphere, lies a star-forming region heavily obscured by interstellar dust. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has used its infrared eyes to poke through the cosmic veil to reveal a striking nebula...
Severe Exoplanetary Storm
These computer-generated images chart the development of severe weather patterns on the highly eccentric exoplanet HD 80606b during the days after its closest approach to its parent star.
Supernova Remnant G54
This image of supernova remnant G54.1+0.3 includes radio, infrared and X-ray light.
M17: Celestial Sea of Stars
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a new, infrared view of the choppy star-making cloud called M17, also known as the Omega Nebula or the Swan Nebula.
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...
Infrared Iris
This cloud of glowing gas is the Iris nebula, as seen in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The main cluster of stars within the nebula is called NGC 7023. It lies 1,300 light-years away in the Cepheus constellation.
Bubbly Newborn Star
Combined observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the newly completed Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in Chile have revealed the throes of stellar birth, as never before, in the well-studied object known as HH 46/47.
The Sombrero Galaxy's Split Personality
The infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed that the Sombrero galaxy -- named after its appearance in visible light to a wide-brimmed hat -- is in fact two galaxies in one.
'Fantastic Four' Galaxies (with planet)
This artist's concept shows what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical planet around a star tossed out of an ongoing four-way collision between big galaxies (yellow blobs). NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope spotted this "quadruple merger" of galaxies within a larger cluster of galaxies...
Alien Asteroid Belt
This artist's concept illustrates what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical alien planet in a star system with an asteroid belt 25 times as massive as the one in our own solar system.
Hubble View of Galaxy Merger II Zw 096
The merging galaxies known collectively as II Zw 096 are shown in this image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
Distant Galaxy Cluster
This distant galaxy cluster was discovered using data from the space-based Spitzer Space Telescope and the ground-based Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Tucson, Ariz.
Spitzer Captures Messier 87
The galaxy M87 looks like a hazy, blue space-puff in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space.
Amazing Andromeda Galaxy
The many "personalities" of our great galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy, are exposed in this new composite image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Spitzer Space Telescope.
The Coronet Cluster in X-Ray and Infrared
The Corona Australis region (containing, at its heart, the Coronet cluster) is one of the nearest and most active regions of ongoing star formation. This composite X-ray and infrared image catches star formation in the act.
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