Browse Archive

  • 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.

  • figure charts 30 hours of observations of a exoplanet

    Light From Red-Hot Planet

    This figure charts 30 hours of observations taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of a strongly irradiated exoplanet .

  • computer-generated images chart the development of severe weather patterns

    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.

  • Plot of data from a dead 'white dwarf'

    Silicates in Alien Asteroids

    This plot of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescopes shows that asteroid dust around a dead "white dwarf" star contains silicates -- a common mineral on Earth.

  • Artist concept of a 'white dwarf' surrounded by a disintegrating asteroid

    Asteroid 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead Star

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes upon the dusty remains of shredded asteroids around several dead stars.

  • radiation and winds from the massive stars are blasting planet-making material away from stars

    Devastated Stellar Neighborhood

    This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the nasty effects of living near a group of massive stars: radiation and winds from the massive stars are blasting planet-making material away from stars.

  • artist's concept shows the dimmest star-like bodies currently known

    Not-So-Bright Bulbs

    This artist's concept shows the dimmest star-like bodies currently known -- twin brown dwarfs referred to as 2M 0939.

  • ripples of gas, or bow shocks, around massive stars in the stormy Swan nebula

    Celestial Sea of Stars (Labelled)

    Spitzer found ripples of gas, or bow shocks, around massive stars in the stormy Swan nebula.

  • Swan nebula

    Celestial Sea of Stars

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has captured a new, infrared view of the choppy star-making cloud called M17, or the Swan nebula.

  • composite image of the Tycho supernova remnant

    Vivid View of Tycho's Supernova Remnant

    This image shows the scene more than four centuries after the brilliant star explosion witnessed by Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of that era.

  • Cristobalite, which is shown here in this magnified view, is found on Earth in volcanic lava flows

    Quartz-like Crystals Found in Planetary Disks

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has, for the first time, detected tiny quartz-like crystals sprinkled in young planetary systems.

  • Epsilon Eridani System diagram

    Young Solar System in the Making

    This artist's diagram compares the Epsilon Eridani system to our own solar system.

  • artist concept of dual asteroid belts

    Double the Rubble

    This artist's conception shows the closest known planetary system to our own, called Epsilon Eridani.

  • Comet Holmes

    Anatomy of a Busted Comet

    NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captured the picture on the left of comet Holmes in February 2008, four months after the comet suddenly erupted and brightened a millionfold overnight.

  • star-forming cloud, called NGC 346

    Stellar Work of Art

    This painterly portrait of a star-forming cloud, called NGC 346, is a combination of multiwavelength light from three telescopes.

  • Cassiopeia A

    Supernova Flashback

    The Cassiopeia A supernova's first flash of radiation makes clumps of dust unusually hot.