22 Aug 2011 at 5:00pm
Hiding behind the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius is the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, over 25,000 light years away. This patch of sky is mostly dark in visible light, shrouded by dust clouds that lie between us and the Galactic center. But the infrared vision of NASA?s Spitzer Space Telescope sees through the dust showing us this strange and tumultuous region.
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9 Feb 2011 at 4:00pm
Seen here in visible light, the North America Nebula strangely resembles its namesake continent. Expanding our view to include infrared light, the dark dust lanes and concealed stars glow in red colors while the continental gas clouds shift to an ocean-?like blue. Pushing entirely into the infrared spectrum, we see even more detail in the convoluted dust clouds.
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22 Dec 2010 at 4:00pm
While astronomers have identified over 500 planets around other stars, they?re all too small and distant to fill even a single pixel in our most powerful telescopes. That?s why science must rely on art to help us imagine these strange new worlds.
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6 Oct 2010 at 5:00pm
Today's telescopes study the sky across the electromagnetic spectrum. Each part of the spectrum tells us different things about the Universe, giving us more pieces of the cosmic jigsaw puzzle. The most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space have joined forces over the last decade in a unique observing campaign, known as the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or GOODS, which reaches across the spectrum and deep back into cosmic time.
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8 Jul 2010 at 5:00pm
Hidden behind a dark veil of dust in the constellation Sagittarius, a lurking dragon has been revealed by the infrared eye of NASA?s Spitzer Space Telescope. It gives us a glimpse into how spiral arms affect the formation of stars.
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31 May 2010 at 5:00pm
When worlds collide, the result is spectacular, and astronomers think they?ve detected the aftermath of such an event around another star.
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18 Mar 2010 at 5:00pm
In December of 2009, NASA launched its latest infrared telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This satellite, also known as WISE, is on a mission to map the entire sky in infrared light.
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4 Feb 2010 at 4:00pm
In May of 2009, the European Space Agency successfully launched the Herschel Space Observatory, a new eye for the infrared universe. Its 3.5 meter mirror lets us see into the far infrared spectrum with unprecedented clarity.
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24 Nov 2009 at 4:00pm
Astronomers have found One Ring to rule them all, not in the land of Mordor, but around Saturn, the Lord of the Rings of the solar system.
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2 Sep 2009 at 5:00pm
The fading light of a flaring young star has shed light on a puzzle involving crystals and comets.
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17 Jun 2009 at 5:00pm
Explore the dusty secrets of the Orion Nebula through Spitzer's infrared vision.
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7 Apr 2009 at 5:00pm
To commemorate this International Year of Astronomy, three of NASA's flagship observatories have put a new spin on how we see the Pinwheel Galaxy!
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1 Feb 2009 at 4:00pm
The Omega Nebula, or M17, is a star-forming region in the constellation of Sagittarius and is about 6,000 light years away.
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25 Dec 2008 at 4:00pm
It's a chaotic region, sculpted by the glare of one generation of massive stars that's giving rise to the next.
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29 Oct 2008 at 5:00pm
Two and a half billion infrared pixels are exposing our own Galaxy in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope!
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