![]() ![]() ![]() Called “Rho Oph” by astronomers and located about 400 light-years from Earth, it’s one of the closest star-forming regions to our own solar system. Newborn stars peek out from beneath their blanket of dust in this image of the Rho Ophiuchi nebula. Young Stars in Their Baby Blanket of Dust This image from Spitzer zooms in on a few members of the sisterhood. The filaments surrounding the stars are dust, and the three colors represent different wavelengths of infrared light. The Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters, is a frequent target for night sky observers. Visible only in infrared light, the bow shock is created by winds that flow from the star, making ripples in the surrounding dust. This Spitzer image shows the giant star Zeta Ophiuchi and the bow shock, or shock wave, in front of it. In honor of Spitzer’s Sweet 16 in space, here are 16 amazing images from the mission. Spitzer has additionally investigated some of the universe’s oldest galaxies and stared at the black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It has illuminated hidden collections of dust in a wide variety of locations, including cosmic nebulas (clouds of gas and dust in space), where young stars form, and swirling galaxies. The telescope has also provided weather maps of hot, gaseous exoplanets and revealed a hidden ring around Saturn. Thanks to Spitzer, scientists were able to confirm the presence of seven rocky, Earth-size planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system. ![]() Since then, the observatory has been lifting the veil on the wonders of the cosmos, from our own solar system to faraway galaxies, using infrared light. We launched our Spitzer Space Telescope into orbit around the Sunday on Aug. NASA Space Science Milky Way Galaxy stars Earth Beautiful Earth Space Pictures Lagoon nebula black holes Hubble Space Telescope pluto saturn jupiter Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space. The next time you’re under a deep, dark sky, don’t forget to look up…and wonder what else might be out there. It’s hidden, that is, unless you use our Chandra X-ray Observatory which captured the x-ray flare seen here. Hidden there behind clouds of dust is a massive black hole. In 26,000 years, after passing millions of stars, you could reach the center of our galaxy. Black hole, Sagittarius A*: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – 26,000 years. If you look *really* closely, as our Hubble Space Telescope did, you’ll see the Lagoon Nebula, churning with stellar winds from newborn stars. If you look closely, you’ll see a fuzzy patch of light and color here. The Lagoon Nebula: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – 4,000 years. We now know it has at least two planets (one of which is imagined here) - just two of more than 4,000 we’ve found…so far. At this speed, it would take you 123 years to get there. Within this patch of sky, there’s an F-type star called HD 169830. F-type star, HD 169830: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – 123 years. Our New Horizons space mission was the first to show us what it looks like. It’s not visible to the unaided eye, but Pluto is currently found roughly in this direction. Pluto: Light-speed travel time from the radio tower – four hours, 33 minutes. Distance: 843 million miles (1.3 billion kilometers). On the right, one of the Cassini spacecraft’s last looks. The next closest is Saturn, another bright “star” in this summer’s sky. Saturn: Travel time – one hour and 15 minutes. ![]() Distance on the night this picture was taken: 400 million miles (644 million kilometers). The closest object in this view is the planet Jupiter, brilliant now in the evening sky…and gorgeous when seen up close by our Juno spacecraft. Jupiter:Travel time – 35 minutes, 49 seconds. If you traveled deep into this part of the sky at the speed of the radio waves leaving this tower, here are some places you could reach. ![]()
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