Browse Archive

  • This artist's concept shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet that orbits very close to its fiery hot star.

    Exotic Atmospheres

    The basic chemistry for life has been detected in a second hot gas planet, HD 209458b, depicted in this artist's concept.

  • a slice of Saturn's largest ring

    Big Band of Dust

    This picture shows a slice of Saturn's largest ring, as seen in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

  • This artist's conception simulates an infrared view of a nearly invisible ring around Saturn spotted by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

    Saturn's Infrared Ring

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- the largest of the giant planet's many rings.

  • This diagram illustrates the extent of the largest ring around Saturn, discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

    The King of Rings

    This diagram illustrates the extent of the largest ring around Saturn, discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

  • Infrared ring around Saturn

    Infrared Ring Around Saturn

    This diagram highlights a slice of Saturn's largest ring.

  • An animation still showing the orbit of the moon Phoebe and Saturn's newfound ring

    Saturn Family Tour

    This video showcases the Saturnian system, beginning with the planet itself and panning out to its newest addition.

  • This artist's conception shows a lump of material in a swirling, planet-forming disk.

    Lump of Planetary Stuff

    This artist's conception shows a lump of material in a swirling, planet-forming disk.

  • image from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows the star-forming cloud Cepheus B, located in our Milky Way galaxy about 2,400 light years from Earth

    Trigger-Happy Cloud

    This composite image, combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope shows the star-forming cloud Cepheus B, located in our Milky Way galaxy about 2,400 light years from Earth.

  • This artist's concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury.

    Planetary Smash-Up

    This artist's concept shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the size of Mercury.

  • NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a wild creature of the dark -- a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center.

    Coiled Creature of the Night

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a wild creature of the dark -- a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center.

  • data reveal a newborn star at the center of our Milky Way

    Telltale Signs of Stellar Youth

    These data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a newborn star at the center of our Milky Way.

  • three baby stars in the bustling center of our Milky Way galaxy

    Baby Stars in Galactic Rat's Nest

    This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows three baby stars in the bustling center of our Milky Way galaxy.

  • A young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust.

    Silicate Crystal Formation in the Disk of an Erupting Star

    This artist's concept illustrates how silicate crystals like those found in comets can be created by an outburst from a growing star.

  • image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

    Why Are Galaxies So Smooth?

    This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the spiral galaxy NGC 2841, located about 46 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major.

  • Cool Stars May Have Different Prebiotic Chemical Mix

    Cool Stars May Have Different Prebiotic Chemical Mix

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope detected a prebiotic, or potentially life-forming, molecule called hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in the planet-forming disks around yellow stars like our sun, but not in the disks around cooler, reddish stars.

  • Chemical Soups Around Cool Stars

    Chemical Soups Around Cool Stars

    This artist's conception shows a young, hypothetical planet around a cool star.

  • Triangulum Galaxy

    M33 - A Close Neighbor Reveals its True Size and Splendor

    One of our closest galactic neighbors shows its awesome beauty in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

  • Triangulum Galaxy

    M33 - A Close Neighbor Reveals its True Size and Splendor

    One of our closest galactic neighbors shows its awesome beauty in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

  • This image of a pair of colliding galaxies called NGC 6240

    Galaxies Collide to Create Hot, Huge Galaxy

    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.

  • Galactic Dust Bunnies Found to Contain Carbon After All

    Galactic Dust Bunnies Found to Contain Carbon After All

    The "Cat’s Eye" nebula, or NGC 6543, is a well-studied example of a "planetary nebula." Such objects are the glowing remnants of dust and gas expelled from moderate-sized stars during their last stages of life.