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[GK86]

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For 10 years, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has been helping scientists on Earth learn more about the mysterious objects hiding in our star-studded skies. On August 25, 2003, the telescope -- carrying a relatively small, 0.85-meter beryllium mirror -- launched from Cape Canaveral, FL. Since then, it's been trailing the Earth on its orbit around the sun, like NASA's Kepler spacecraft.

Spitzer stares at the heavens in infrared wavelengths, revealing the cold, distant, and dusty realms of the universe, normally invisible to eyes on Earth. In this gallery, ribbons of dust wind around massive stars, the cavities carved by hot, young stars open up like bottomless caverns, and the spiraling tendrils of a distant galaxy glisten behind a foreground nebula.

Helix Nebula

What looks like an even more terrifying version of the Eye of Sauron is actually the Helix Nebula, about 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Here, the white dwarf star (visible in the very center), is the dead remnant of what was once a star like the sun. The bright red glow immediately around it is probably the dust kicked up by colliding comets that survived the death of their stellar host.

Sombrero Galaxy

What appears to be one gorgeous galaxy is actually two: A thin disk galaxy (in red), embedded within a large elliptical galaxy (in blue), about 28 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Infrared images from Spitzer revealed the Sombrero galaxy's hidden double nature; previously, astronomers thought it was just a flat and lonely disk galaxy.

Newborn Stars

Newborn stars peer out from beneath a blanket of dust in the Rho Ophiuchi dark cloud, located near the constellations Scorpius and Ophiuchus, about 407 light-years away from Earth.

The Wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud

We love this image because it looks as though a cosmic pair of T. rex jaws are about to gobble up some unsuspecting young stars. In reality, this is a region known as the "Wing" of the Small Magellanic Cloud, one of the Milky Way's satellite dwarf galaxies. Here, Chandra X-Ray Observatory data are in purple, optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope are shown in red, green and blue, and infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are shown in red.

M81

Messier 81, a relatively nearby galaxy that's just 12 million light-years distant, is a gorgeous spiral located the northern sky, in Ursa Major.

S

Sculptor Galaxy

The Sculptor Galaxy, 11.4 million light-years away, is seen in these three Spitzer images. The largest is a composite of the two smaller images, each observed during Spitzer's early "cold" mission. Visible in the southern sky, the galaxy is known as a starburst galaxy because its nucleus contains a region of profuse star formation.

Zeta Ophiuchi

A giant star zooming through space at 54,000 miles per hour creates a bowshock, ripples that are the result of billowing stellar winds colliding with the dust ahead of it. About 370 light-years away, Zeta Ophiuchi is 80,000 times brighter than the sun; it would be one of the brightest stars in the sky, but it's invisible from Earth, obscured by dust and clouds.

Orion

A colony of hot, young stars lives in the Orion nebula, about 1,450-light years from Earth. This image was captured shortly after Spitzer's warm mission phase began.

Bright Superbubble

Massive stars grow quickly and die young, exploding in radiant supernovae. A large cluster of these hot, young stars will generate stellar winds and shock waves that carve superbubbles into the fabric of their nurseries, like the ones seen here, about 160,000 light-years away in NGC 1929.

Galactic Merger

The cores of two merging galaxies form what appear to be giant blue eyes, peering out from behind a swirling red mask. Galaxies NGC 2207 and IC 2163, located about 140 million light-years from Earth, began merging relatively recently -- about 40 million years ago. Eventually, the pair will form a giant cycloptic eye.

Eta Carinae

Eta Carinae is a relatively nearby star, 10,000 light-years away, that is 100 times more massive than the sun. The star is blindingly bright, and blows violent amounts of energy into the dust around it. The Eta Carinae nebula normally looks like a dumbbell -- except in the infrared, where the effects of the whipping stellar winds are evident in the ragged and beaten-up clouds around the star.

Those are same crazy beautiful photos. I love space.

 

[commedieu]

Aren't all photos of space color corrected? As in, a little bit of this is definitely artists imagination..?

 

[AliceInJam]

Absolutely incredible pictures. I want to go to space.....

 

[DarkJediKnight]

 

[Doc Holliday]

The fact that we will probably never be able to visit these amazing places is so depressing.

 

[AliceInJam]

It blows my mind to think that these are the "close" galaxies, being thousands to millions of lightyears away. My mind melts thinking about what we aren't seeing....

 

[Protein]

Our closest neighboring galaxy might be fighting off a Tyranid invasion or come to complete enlightenment with happiness and galaxy-wide peace. We will never know.

 

[Timedog]

Aren't all photos of space color corrected? As in, a little bit of this is definitely artists imagination..?

No You're thinking of the sci-fi movie Star Track.

 

[User 85168]

Aren't all photos of space color corrected? As in, a little bit of this is definitely artists imagination..?

Yeah. They do use color correction but it's used to make sure that we can see the different gases and etc. Most of it is based on science (for example, the known chemical composition of those gases), not artist's imagination.

 

[R2D4]

Yeah. They do use color correction but it's used to make sure that we can see the different gases and etc. Most of it is based on science (for example, the known chemical composition of those gases), not artist's imagination.

The point is if you were in a ship looking at it, it wouldn't look like these pictures.

 

[User 85168]

The point is if you were in a ship looking at it, it wouldn't look like these pictures.

True. It would also be almost impossible to see any of these scenes from a spacecraft without an instrument like this telescope, seeing as it's capturing scenes that can span lightyears across.

 

[Raiden]

Aren't all photos of space color corrected? As in, a little bit of this is definitely artists imagination..?

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

 

[Row]

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

oh that's easy, just turn off your screen

 

[WeAreStarStuff]

Aren't all photos of space color corrected? As in, a little bit of this is definitely artists imagination..?

They don't look like that with my telescope; I can tell you that lol.

 

[Timedog]

The point is if you were in a ship looking at it, it wouldn't look like these pictures.

Why does it have to be a ship, I've always wondered? What if you were on a space bike? I wonder what the helmet laws are like in space.

 

[pr0cs]

I am depressed that we humans, as a species, have not tried harder to escape the bonds of our planet and explore outer space more. Instead we're fixated on amassing gluttonous wealth and killing each other.
These pictures are amazing.

 

[R2D4]

Why does it have to be a ship, I've always wondered? What if you were on a space bike? I wonder what the helmet laws are like in space.

I wonder what comedy is like in space? Gotta be better than that.

 

[ThatObviousUser]

A colony of hot, young stars lives in the Orion nebula

 

[AGoodODST]

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

I imagine it would look nothing like these images. These scenes are impressive because you see them in their entirety, which are usually light years across.

 

[User 85168]

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

For example, I read that the Hubble captures uv, infrared, and visible spectrum of light. As far as I understand, the visible spectrum (in black and white) is captured through red, green, and blue filter separately. They then combine that those images with UV and infrared (which isn't visible for us humans) captures and use color correction to represent those things.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

I wonder what comedy is like in space? Gotta be better than that.

So far you've complained about pictures of space and Timedog.

Anything else bothering you? My avatar not looking like a real dinosaur for example?

 

[Row]

I am depressed that we humans, as a species, have not tried harder to escape the bonds of our planet and explore outer space more. Instead we're fixated on amassing gluttonous wealth and killing each other.
These pictures are amazing.

We as a species have progressed a shit load given how brief a period of time we've been around

 

[Akkad]

I had a few of these as my desktop background.

 

[Boom Boom Pow]

I am depressed that we humans, as a species, have not tried harder to escape the bonds of our planet and explore outer space more. Instead we're fixated on amassing gluttonous wealth and killing each other.
These pictures are amazing.

we just went to the moon 30 years ago in the 100,000 years of human existence. what the eff are you smoking?

 

[Thatonemoor]

I do hope that some day in the future humans will be off our planet and exploring the galaxy. I'm just sad that I won't live to see that day

 

[R2D4]

So far you've complained about pictures of space and Timedog.

Anything else bothering you? My avatar not looking like a real dinosaur for example?

It's on my list.

 

[GK86]

Our closest neighboring galaxy might be fighting off a Tyranid invasion or come to complete enlightenment with happiness and galaxy-wide peace. We will never know.

That is the truly mind blowing part of it all.

 

[Valtýr]

I see a child's face.

 

[Boss Doggie]

Those are same crazy beautiful photos. I love space.

???

 

[Messofanego]

Bowshock Infinite

After Europa Report and now this, I should have space stuff as a new hobby.

 

[SephCast]

And people think there's no way life exists outside of earth? Just look at how many fucking stars there are, and with each star, a group of planets.

 

[Timedog]

And people think there's no way life exists outside of earth? Just look at how many fucking stars there are, and with each star, a group of planets.

Stars aren't what you think they are. They're called The Watchers.

 

[SUPREME1]

Need pics of Nibiru/Planet X

It's gonna kill us all in a few months. It'd be nice to see our killer before it destroys us.

Why won't NASA release its trajectory info? They've already lied about it's size.

They don't want panic.

 

[fallout]

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

For these Spitzer images, they have to apply some kind of colour to the images because it's all in infrared.

Here's a sketch someone did of M81:

That would be roughly how your eye perceives it. YMMV depending on telescope aperture, seeing conditions, etc. And here's how Spitzer sees it:

 

[Messofanego]

What's a cold and warm mission?

Need pics of Nibiru/Planet X

It's gonna kill is all in a few months. It's be nice to see our killer before it destroys us.

Why won't NASA release its trajectory stats. It's already lied about it's size.

They don't want panic.

Sarcasm?

 

[luoapp]

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

Naked eye? looks like this

Spoiler

___

Those are infrared pictures, human eye just can't see it.

 

[BrhysH]

wow those look fantastic.

Only wonder what we'd see if NASA actually got properly funded.

 

[xbhaskarx]

I see a child's face.

2001 A Space Odyssey was real

 

[Derwind]

oh that's easy, just turn off your screen

Turn off your lights as well because nearly all of it is captured well beyond the spectrum of visible light.

 

[gwarm01]

Aren't all photos of space color corrected? As in, a little bit of this is definitely artists imagination..?

A lot of times they are color corrected to show contrast, or to give color to gases that you can't see with the naked eye.

However, take a decent telescope and look at the Orion nebula and you will see something that looks just like their image. Gorgeous, sparkling stars illuminated a blue haze. That's legitimate.

The Pleiades also look just a beautiful in person as they do in NASA photos.

 

[Clydefrog]

Beautiful. But my mind can't process the vastness and seemingly infinite complexities this universe holds...

 

[SUPREME1]

What's a cold and warm mission?



Sarcasm?

Comet ISON cometh. Niburu is ISON. ISON is Nibiru. Planet X is here. Game over.

 

[fallout]

Comet ISON cometh. Niburu is ISON. ISON is Nibiru. Planet X is here. Game over.

Seriously, I think you're kidding, but this is really just Poe's Law at work. I can't tell.

 

[Messofanego]

Comet ISON cometh. Niburu is ISON. ISON is Nibiru. Planet X is here. Game over.

At least you'll go down with a smile.

 

[Lazy Jones]

just 12 million light-years distant

This made me laugh. So if you tavel at the speed of light (it takes one third of a second to go around the earth at this speed) it will take only twelve million years to get there. So close!

 

[Timedog]

I wonder what comedy is like in space? Gotta be better than that.

It's not supposed to be funny. It's art.

 

[Cerity]

Yeah, thats the one thing bothering me when looking at these pictures. There are filters and stuff over it. Anyone have some pics to how stuff like this would look with the naked eye?

A lot less vivid.

You get some colourful lookers just through telescopes and such but they're using long exposure times.

With Orion through a telescope, you don't get any of that tan/pink/peach colour, just that near neon blue.

 

[Boss Doggie]

And people think there's no way life exists outside of earth? Just look at how many fucking stars there are, and with each star, a group of planets.

No they're actually very ancient explosions from mobile suits that exploded from a very old war and we're just seeing them.

 

[NEOPARADIGM]

I see a child's face.

Fuck yeah.

Owl.

 

[Evolution_1ne]

And people think there's no way life exists outside of earth? Just look at how many fucking stars there are, and with each star, a group of planets.

That insinuates that people think in the first place, I assure you their minds don't go that far.

Kanye West baby is more important