In Pictures: Meteors
In Pictures: Exploring Mars with Curiosity
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Dancing with the Stars
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Black Holes
In Pictures: Space Photos of the Day: Asteroids
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Visions of the future
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Massive Storms
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Gas giants
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Heavenly Rings
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: Female Astronauts
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: The Moon
In Pictures: Space photos of the day: A Blue Planet
The constellation Orion as it appears in visible light (l.) and in infrared light (r.). The infrared image is a mosaic of images from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).
The magnificent spiral arms of the nearby galaxy Messier 81 are highlighted in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major (which also includes the Big Dipper), this galaxy is easily visible through binoculars or a small telescope. M81 is located at a distance of 12 million light-years.
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 visible-light view shows dark, barely-visible pillars. The added detail in the Spitzer image reveals a dynamic region in the process of evolving and creating new stellar life.
This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what astronomers are referring to as a 'snake' (upper l.) and its surrounding stormy environment. The sinuous object is actually the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say the 'snake's belly' may be harboring beastly stars in the process of forming.
This Landsat 7 image of Guinea-Bissau, a small country in West Africa, shows the complex patterns of the country's shallow coastal waters, where silt carried by the Geba and other rivers washes out into the Atlantic Ocean. This is a false-color composite image made using infrared, red and blue wavelengths to bring out details in the silt.
This image composite highlights the pillars of the Eagle nebula, as seen in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (bottom) and visible light by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope (top insets). The top right inset focuses on the three famous pillars, dubbed the 'Pillars of Creation,' which were photographed by Hubble in 1995. Hubble's optical view shows the dusty towers in exquisite detail, while Spitzer's infrared eyes penetrate through the thick dust, revealing ghostly transparent structures.
This set of images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Eagle Nebula. The left picture shows lots of stars and dusty structures with clarity. Dusty molecules found on Earth produce most of the red; gas is green and stars are blue. The middle view is packed with drama, because it tells astronomers that a star in this region violently erupted, or went supernova. This view also reveals that the hot dust is shell shaped, an indication that a star exploded. The final picture highlights the contrast between the hot, supernova-heated dust (green) and the cooler dust making up the region's dusty star-forming clouds and towers (red, blue and purple).
These images represent views of Kepler's supernova remnant taken in X-rays, visible light, and infrared radiation. Each top panel shows the entire remnant. Each color in this image represents a different region of the electromagnetic spectrum, from X-rays to infrared light. The X-ray and infrared data cannot be seen with the human eye. Astronomers have color-coded those data so they can be seen in these images. The bottom panels are close-up views of the remnant.
This side-by-side comparison image shows the Spitzer Space Telescope's Delta II rocket in the late afternoon before launch. On the top is a photograph in visible light, while on the bottom is a false color infrared image showing the launch vehicle in the way the telescope would see it. The coldest surfaces in the infrared image are blue/black while the hottest ones are yellow/white. The comparison between these two images reveals many interesting features of infrared light.
NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper, an instrument on the Indian Space Research Organization's Chandrayaan-1 mission, took this image of Earth's moon. It is a three-color composite of reflected near-infrared radiation from the sun, and illustrates the extent to which different materials are mapped across the side of the moon that faces Earth. Small amounts of water were detected on the surface of the moon at various locations. This image illustrates their distribution at high latitudes toward the poles.
This still frame is from an infrared video of the launch of Spitzer (then known as SIRTF, the Space Infrared Telescope Facility).
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured these infrared images of the 'Whirlpool Galaxy,' revealing strange structures bridging the gaps between the dust-rich spiral arms, and tracing the dust, gas and stellar populations in both the bright spiral galaxy and its companion.
This image composite compares infrared and visible views of the famous Orion nebula and its surrounding cloud, an industrious star-making region located near the hunter constellation's sword. The infrared picture is from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and the visible image is from the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz.
Hidden behind a shroud of dust in the constellation Cygnus is a stellar nursery called DR21, which is giving birth to some of the most massive stars in our galaxy. Visible light images reveal no trace of this interstellar cauldron because of heavy dust obscuration. In fact, visible light is attenuated in DR21 by a factor of more than ten thousand trillion heptillion (that's a 10 with 39 zeroes). New images from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope allow us to peek behind the cosmic veil and pinpoint one of the most massive natal stars yet seen in our Milky Way galaxy.
This image composite compares a visible-light view (l.) of the 'Cigar Galaxy' to an infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of the same galaxy. While the visible image shows a serene galaxy looking cool as a cucumber, the infrared image reveals a smokin' hot 'cigar.' The visible-light picture of the Cigar galaxy, also called Messier 82, shows only a bar of light against a dark patch of space.
A rare, infrared view of a developing star and its flaring jets taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope (r.) shows us what our own solar system might have looked like billions of years ago. In visible light, this star and its surrounding regions are completely hidden in darkness (l.). Stars form out of spinning clouds, or envelopes, of gas and dust. As the envelopes flatten and collapse, jets of gas stream outward and a swirling disk of planet-forming material takes shape around the forming star.
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/28
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/27
Photos of the Day: Photos of the day 04/26
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/25
In Pictures: Where Our Clothes Come From
In Pictures: Millenium Development Goals: GLOBAL PROGRESS REPORT
Photos of the Day: Photos of the Day 04/24
In Pictures: Mexico's Economy
Four years after its successful unmanned mission to the Moon, India plans to send an unmanned orbiter to the Red Planet next year.
India plans to send an unmanned orbiter to Mars in November 2013 to study the climate and the geology of the Red Planet.
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