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List		 Addition Date Target Mission InstrumentSort Descending Size
Add Image to Favorite List 1999-11-30 Black Hole 925x1197x3
This graphic shows the computer simulation of a black hole from start to finish. Plasma is falling slowly toward the black hole in a (at the upper left). The plasma has a magnetic field, shown by the white lines.
PIA04206:
Black Hole Simulation
Full Resolution:     TIFF (3.325 MB)     JPEG (106.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2004-05-27 Spitzer Space Telescope
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In this artist's conception, a possible newfound planet spins through a clearing in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disc. This clearing was detected around the star CoKu Tau 4 by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA05988:
Out of the Dust, A Planet is Born (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (4.995 MB)     JPEG (111.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2004-12-09 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept depicts a distant hypothetical solar system, similar in age to our own. Looking inward from the system's outer fringes, a ring of dusty debris can be seen, and within it, planets circling a star the size of our Sun.
PIA07096:
A Distant Solar System (Artist's Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (7.518 MB)     JPEG (308.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2004-12-09 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Artist's concept of a distant hypothetical solar system, about the same age as our own.
PIA07097:
A Distant Solar System (Artist's Concept Animation) Animation Icon
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Add Image to Favorite List 2004-12-09 Spitzer Space Telescope
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope recently captured these infrared images of six older stars with known planets. The yellow, fuzzy blobs are stars circled by disks of dust, or 'debris disks,' like the one that surrounds our own Sun.
PIA07098:
Is There Anybody Home?
Full Resolution:     TIFF (1.3 MB)     JPEG (126 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2004-12-09 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Bright, young disks can be imaged directly by visible-light telescopes, such as NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Older, fainter debris disks can be detected only by infrared telescopes like NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which sense the disks' dim heat.
PIA07099:
The Evolution of a Planet-Forming Disk (Artist's Concept Animation) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (4.195 MB)     JPEG (75.87 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-01-10 Vega Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist concept illustrates how a massive collision of objects perhaps as large as the planet Pluto smashed together to create the dust ring around the nearby star Vega.
PIA07217:
Massive Smash-up at Vega (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (16.11 MB)     JPEG (332.7 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-01-11 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates one possible answer to the puzzle of the 'giant galactic blobs.' NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes on one well-known blob located 11 billion light-years away.
PIA07221:
At the Heart of Blobs (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (8.552 MB)     JPEG (322.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-02-08 OTS 44 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows a brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disc of planet-building dust. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope spotted such a disc around a surprisingly low-mass brown dwarf, or 'failed star.'
PIA07335:
Birth of an Unusual Planetary System (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (11.05 MB)     JPEG (371.7 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-02-08 OTS 44 Spitzer Space Telescope
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes on an extraordinarily low-mass brown dwarf called OTS 44 and found a swirling disc of planet-building dust shown in this artist concept.
PIA07336:
'Mini-Me' Solar System (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (6.098 MB)     JPEG (386.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-03-01 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept demonstrates that an invisible galaxy shrouded in dust can become glaringly bright when viewed in infrared light.
PIA07396:
Invisible Galaxies Come to Life! (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (18.75 MB)     JPEG (578.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-04-20 HD 69830 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical alien planet in a star system with an asteroid belt 25 times as massive as the one in our own solar system.
PIA07853:
Alien Asteroid Belt Compared to our Own (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.04 MB)     JPEG (451.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-04-20 HD 69830 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Evidence for this possible belt was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope when it spotted warm dust around the star, presumably from asteroids smashing together. This is an artist's concept.
PIA07854:
Band of Rubble (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (350.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-10-20 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows microscopic crystals in the dusty disk surrounding a brown dwarf, or 'failed star.' The crystals, made up of a green mineral found on Earth called olivine, are thought to help seed the formation of planets.
PIA03048:
Sowing the Seeds of Planets? (Artist's Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (301.7 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-11-29 55 Cancri 3000x2400x3
Artist's concept compares a hypothetical solar system centered around a tiny 'sun' to a known solar system centered around a star 55 Cancri.
PIA03604:
Itsy Bitsy Solar System (Artist's Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (393.8 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2005-12-20 IRS 46 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates a solar system that is a much younger version of our own. Dusty disks, like the one shown here circling the star, are thought to be the breeding grounds of planets, including rocky ones like Earth.
PIA03243:
Portrait of Our Dusty Past (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (361.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-04-05 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept depicts a type of dead star called a pulsar and the surrounding disk of rubble discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The pulsar, called 4U 0142+61, was once a massive star until about 100,000 years ago.
PIA08040:
Stellar Rubble May be Planetary Building Blocks (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.04 MB)     JPEG (721.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-04-05 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept depicts the pulsar planet system discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992. Wolszczan used the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico to find three planets circling a pulsar called PSR B1257+12.
PIA08042:
Extreme Planets (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (351.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-07-24 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept demonstrates how a dusty planet-forming disk can slow down a whirling young star, essentially saving the star from spinning itself to death. Evidence for this phenomenon comes from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA08626:
Stars Can't Spin Out of Control (Artist's Animation) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.04 MB)     JPEG (714.7 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-08-23 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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This artist's concept depicts a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer found evidence that black holes (once they grow to a critical size) stifle the formation of new stars in elliptical galaxies.
PIA08696:
An Unwelcome Place for New Stars (artist concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (1.465 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-08-23 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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This diagram illustrates research from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer showing that black holes (once they reach a critical size) can put the brakes on new star formation in elliptical galaxies.
PIA08697:
Big Black Holes Mean Bad News for Stars (diagram)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (494.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-10-12 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows a blistering world revolving around its nearby 'sun.' NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope observed a planetary system like this one, as the planet's sunlit and dark hemispheres swung alternately into the telescope's view.
PIA01936:
Fire and Ice Planet (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (920.9 kB)     JPEG (22.82 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-10-12 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows a Jupiter-like planet soaking up the scorching rays of its nearby 'sun.' This NASA Spitzer Space Telescope illustration portrays how the planet would appear to infrared eyes, showing temperature variations across its surface.
PIA01938:
Exotic World Blisters Under the Sun (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.07 MB)     JPEG (308.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-10-26 Cassiopeia A Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist concept shows that NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that this star, the remains of which are named Cassiopeia A, exploded with some degree of order, preserving chunks of its onion-like layers as it blasted apart.
PIA01901:
Once an Onion, Always an Onion (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.62 MB)     JPEG (576.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-12-05 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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This artist's concept shows a supermassive black hole at the center of a remote galaxy digesting the remnants of a star.
PIA01884:
Black Hole Grabs Starry Snack (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (18 MB)     JPEG (580.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2006-12-18 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates the universe's early years, from its explosive formation to its dark ages to its first stars and mini-galaxies. Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found patches of infrared light splattered across the sky.
PIA09099:
Stars Spring up Out of the Darkness (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (930.5 kB)     JPEG (22 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-01-26 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This is an artist's concept of a hypothetical 10-million-year-old star system. The bright blur at the center is a star much like our sun. The other orb in the image is a gas-giant planet like Jupiter.
PIA09117:
Gas Giants Form Quickly (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (205.5 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-01-26 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows a gas-giant planet orbiting very close to its parent star, creating searingly hot conditions on the planet's surface.
PIA09118:
Forecasting Weather on Distant Worlds (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.04 MB)     JPEG (277.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-02-21 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This diagram illustrates how astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope can capture the elusive spectra of hot-Jupiter planets. Spectra are an object's light spread apart into its basic components, or wavelengths.
PIA09196:
How to Pluck a Spectrum from a Planet
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (298.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-02-21 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept, based on spectral observations from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope, shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet that orbits very close to its fiery hot star.
PIA09200:
Exotic Atmospheres (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (257.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-03-07 Z Camelopardalis Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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This artist's concept is of Z Camelopardalis (Z Cam), a stellar system featuring a collapsed, dead star, or white dwarf, and a companion star. This image shows one of the first regions of Mars measured after CRISM's cover was opened
PIA09221:
Explosions - Large and Small (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (1.053 MB)     JPEG (34.97 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-03-29 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have revealed that mature planetary systems -- dusty disks of asteroids, comets and possibly planets -- are more frequent around close-knit twin, or binary, stars than single stars like our sun.
PIA09228:
Alien Sunset (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (18 MB)     JPEG (239.4 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-03-29 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's image depicts a faraway solar system like our own except for one big difference. Planets and asteroids circle around not one, but two suns. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that such solar systems may be common in the universe.
PIA09229:
Two Suns Raise Family of Planetary Bodies (Artist Animation) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (309.2 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-04-18 Rosette Nebula Spitzer Space Telescope
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope surveyed the danger zones around five O-stars in the Rosette nebula. This artist's animation illustrates how this process works.
PIA09266:
Highway to the Danger Zone (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.76 MB)     JPEG (244.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-05-09 HD 149026b Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates the hottest planet yet observed in the universe. The scorching ball of gas, a 'hot Jupiter' called HD 149026b, is about 3 times hotter than the rocky surface of Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system.
PIA09378:
Blacker than Black (Artist's Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (918 kB)     JPEG (12.32 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-07-24 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist concept based on data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, depicts a quadruple-star system called HD 98800. The system is approximately 10 million years old, and is located 150 light-years away in the constellation TW Hydrae.
PIA09939:
Evidence for Strange Stellar Family (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (256.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-08-06 CL0958+4702 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical planet around a star tossed out of an ongoing four-way collision between big galaxies.
PIA09956:
Fantastic Four Galaxies with Planet (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (941.8 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-08-06 CL0958+4702 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates one of the largest smash-ups of galaxies ever observed. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope spotted the four galaxies shown here (yellow blobs) in the process of tangling and ultimately merging into a single gargantuan galaxy.
PIA09957:
Galactic Pile-Up (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (774.2 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-08-29 NGC 1333 Spitzer Space Telescope
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope observed a fledgling solar system like the one depicted in this artist's concept, and discovered deep within it enough water vapor to fill the oceans on Earth five times.
PIA09967:
Water's Early Journey in a Solar System (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (23.04 MB)     JPEG (336.4 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-10-03 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rocky Earth-like planet is forming around one of the stars.
PIA09931:
Birth of an Earth-like Planet (Artist Xoncept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (281.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-10-25 Spitzer Space Telescope
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A growing black hole, called a quasar, is seen at the center of a faraway galaxy in this artist's concept. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space telescopes discovered swarms of similar quasars hiding in dusty galaxies in the distant universe.
PIA10093:
Bursting with Stars and Black Holes (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (501.4 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-11-06 55 Cancri PlanetQuest
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This plot tells astronomers that a fifth planet is in orbit around the star 55 Cancri, making the star the record-holder for hosting the most known exoplanets.
PIA10106:
Wave of a Planet
Full Resolution:     TIFF (1.168 MB)     JPEG (52.83 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-11-06 55 Cancri PlanetQuest
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This artist's concept illustrates two planetary systems -- 55 Cancri (top) and our own. Blue lines show the orbits of planets, including the dwarf planet Pluto in our solar system.
PIA10107:
Our Solar System's Cousin? (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (4.05 MB)     JPEG (78.68 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-11-06 55 Cancri PlanetQuest
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This artist's concept shows four of the five planets that orbit 55 Cancri, a star much like our own. The most recently discovered planet, and the fourth out from the star, looms large in the foreground.
PIA10108:
Plentiful Planetary System (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.768 MB)     JPEG (34.45 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2007-11-06 55 Cancri PlanetQuest
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This artist's concept takes us on a journey to 55 Cancri, a star with a family of five known planets - the most planets discovered so far around a star besides our own.
PIA10109:
Journey to a Star Rich with Planets (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (449.6 kB)     JPEG (14.71 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-01-10 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope provide strong evidence that the slender, bulgeless galaxies can, like their chubbier counterparts, harbor supermassive black holes at their cores in this artist concept.
PIA10221:
Galaxies of all Shapes Host Black Holes (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (249 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-01-25 Abell 1763 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that filamentary galaxies form stars at twice the rate of their densely clustered counterparts. This is a representation of galaxies in and surrounding a galaxy cluster called Abell 1763.
PIA10227:
Celestial Cities and the Roads That Connect Them
Full Resolution:     TIFF (15.84 MB)     JPEG (140 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-03-27 HD 189733b Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's impression shows a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. Infrared analysis by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of this type of system provided the breakthrough.
PIA10364:
NASA's Spitzer Finds Water Vapor on Hot, Alien Planet (Artist's Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (6.821 MB)     JPEG (233.2 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-04-28 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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Since its launch five years ago, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer has photographed hundreds of millions of galaxies in ultraviolet light. M106 is one of those galaxies, 22 light years away.
PIA10600:
Galaxy Evolution Explorer Celebrates Five Years in Space
Full Resolution:     TIFF (44.24 MB)     JPEG (1.247 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-05-29 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This image illustrates how a light echo works, and how an optical illusion of material moving outward is created.
PIA10723:
Dissecting a Light Echo Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (926.2 kB)     JPEG (10.23 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-05-29 Cassiopeia A Spitzer Space Telescope
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A seething cauldron of light appears to bubble and ooze around the remains of a giant star that astronomers have been watching tear itself apart for the last 300 years. Different observations taken over three years by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA10724:
Cauldron of Light Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (922.3 kB)     JPEG (21.94 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-05-29 Cassiopeia A Spitzer Space Telescope
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This composite image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the remnant of a star that exploded, called Cassiopeia A (center) and its surrounding 'light echoes' -- dances of light through dusty clouds, created when stars blast apart.
PIA10725:
Dance of the Light Echoes
Full Resolution:     TIFF (74.48 MB)     JPEG (1.502 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-06-03 Milky Way Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates the new view of the Milky Way. The galaxy's two major arms can be seen attached to the ends of a thick central bar, while the two now-demoted minor arms are less distinct and located between the major arms.
PIA10748:
Our Milky Way Gets a Makeover (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (94.08 MB)     JPEG (2.05 MB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-07-10 Spitzer Space Telescope
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The green and red splotch in this image is the most active star-making galaxy in the very distant universe. Nicknamed 'Baby Boom,' it was spotted 12.3 billion light-years away by a suite of telescopes, including NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA10932:
Super Starburst Galaxy
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.632 MB)     JPEG (50.75 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-10-27 Epsilon Eridani Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception shows the closest known planetary system to our own, called Epsilon Eridani. Observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show that the system hosts two asteroid belts.
PIA11375:
Double the Rubble (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (14.4 MB)     JPEG (249.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-10-27 Epsilon Eridani Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's diagram based on observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope compares the Epsilon Eridani system to our own solar system. The two systems are structure
PIA11376:
Young Solar System in the Making (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (405.7 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2008-12-10 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept based on data from NASA's Spitzer shows the dimmest star-like bodies currently known -- twin brown dwarfs referred to as 2M 0939. The twins, which are about the same size, are drawn as if they were viewed close to one of the bodies.
PIA11447:
Not-So-Bright Bulbs (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (321.3 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-01-05 Spitzer Space Telescope
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes upon the dusty remains of shredded asteroids around several dead stars. This artist's concept illustrates a 'white dwarf,' surrounded by the bits and pieces of a disintegrating asteroid.
PIA11735:
Asteroid 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead Star (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (430 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-01-05 GD 40 Spitzer Space Telescope
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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.
PIA11736:
Silicates in Alien Asteroids
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (278.5 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2010-02-03 HD 189733 1088x745x3
This artist concept shows the planetary system called HD 189733, located 63 light-years away in the constellation Velpecula.
PIA12505:
Probing Exoplanets From the Ground (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (2.435 MB)     JPEG (122.6 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-04-07 Spitzer Space Telescope
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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.
PIA11979:
Cool Stars May Have Different Prebiotic Chemical Mix
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (322.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-04-07 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception shows a young, hypothetical planet around a cool star. A soupy mix of potentially life-forming chemicals can be seen pooling around the base of the jagged rocks.
PIA11980:
Chemical Soups Around Cool Stars (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (519.4 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-05-13 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates how silicate crystals like those found in comets can be created by an outburst from a growing star. The image shows a young sun-like star encircled by its planet-forming disk of gas and dust. Animation available.
PIA12008:
Silicate Crystal Formation in the Disk of an Erupting Star (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (276.9 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-05-28 VB 10 PlanetQuest
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This image shows the star VB 10 moving across the sky over a period of nine years. Astronomers nabbed a planet circling this star using a method called astrometry -- the first successful application of the method to planet hunting.
PIA12013:
How to Find a Tiny Wobble in a Zippy Star Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (322.5 kB)     JPEG (32.17 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-05-28 VB 10 2400x3000x3
This artist's diagram compares our solar system (below) to the VB 10 star system. Astronomers successfully used the astrometry planet-hunting method for the first time to discover a gas planet, called VB 10b, around a very tiny star, VB 10.
PIA12014:
Bizarre Planetary System (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.62 MB)     JPEG (294.7 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-05-28 VB 10 3000x2400x3
This artist's concept shows the smallest star known to host a planet. The planet, called VB 10b, was discovered using astrometry, a method in which the wobble induced by a planet on its star is measured precisely on the sky.
PIA12015:
A Planet as Big as its Star (Artist Concept)
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (416 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-08-10 HD 172555 Spitzer Space Telescope
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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 found evidence that a high-speed collision of this sort occurred a few thousand years ago around a young star.
PIA12166:
Planetary Demolition Derby (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
Full Resolution:     TIFF (21.6 MB)     JPEG (362.1 kB)
Add Image to Favorite List 2009-08-19 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft and Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory combined data making this diagram illustratrating the extent to which astronomers have been underestimating the proportion of small to big stars in certain galaxies.
PIA12174:
Adding up Stars in a Galaxy
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-08-19 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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These two photographs were made by combining data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spacecraft and the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile to learn that not all galaxies make stars of different sizes in the same quantities.
PIA12175:
A Lesson in Counting Stars
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-09-23 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception shows a lump of material in a swirling, planet- forming disk. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that either another star or a planet could be pushing planetary material together, as illustrated here.
PIA12210:
Lump of Planetary Stuff (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-10-07 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception shows a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- the largest of the giant planet's many rings. It was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA12257:
Saturn's Infrared Ring (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-10-07 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception shows a nearly invisible ring around Saturn -- the largest of the giant planet's many rings. It was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA12256:
The King of Rings (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-10-07 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This image showcases the Saturnian system, beginning with the planet itself and panning out to its newest addition -- an enormous ring discovered in infrared light by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA12258:
Saturn Family Tour
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-11-03 IRAS
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Nearly the entire sky, as seen in infrared wavelengths and projected at one-half degree resolution, is shown in this image, assembled from six months of data from the NASA's Infrared Astronomical Satellite, or IRAS.
PIA12335:
Infrared Astronomical Satellite's View of the Sky
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-11-17 IRAS
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The image on the left shows an infrared view of the center of our Milky Way galaxy as seen by the 1983 Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which surveyed the whole sky with only 62 pixels. The image on the right shows an infrared view similar to what NASA's
PIA12465:
The Next Generation of Infrared Views
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-11-17 IRAS
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This infrared view of the whole sky highlights the flat plane of our Milky Way galaxy (line across middle of image). NASA's WISE, will take a similar infrared census of the whole sky, only with much improved resolution and sensitivity.
PIA12467:
All-Sky Infrared Survey
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Add Image to Favorite List 2009-11-23 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Are brown dwarfs born like stars, as in this rendering, or do they form like planets orbiting another star? A study by researchers using data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has led to the preliminary conclusion that they are formed much like a star.
PIA12376:
Dusty Beginnings of a Star
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-01-05 Spitzer Space Telescope
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Every 27 years, a bright star called Epsilon Aurigae fades over period of two years, then brightens back up again. A companion is known to be surrounded by a dusty disk, as illustrated in this artist's concept.
PIA12484:
Mystery of the Fading Star (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-03-17 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at the core of a young, star-rich galaxy.
PIA12966:
Prehistoric Black Hole (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-04-21 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept illustrates a hot, Neptune-sized planet called GJ 436b. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has found evidence that GJ 436b, orbiting a star beyond our sun lacks methane -- an ingredient common to many planets in our own solar system.
PIA13054:
Exotic Exoplanet (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-06-01 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows a galaxy with a supermassive black hole at its core. The black hole is shooting out jets of radio waves.
PIA13168:
Backward Black Hole Shoots Powerful Jets (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-06-24 Spitzer Space Telescope
Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE)
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This artist's concept shows hundreds of brown dwarfs (deep red), expected to be added to the population of known stars in our solar neighborhood. Our sun and other known stars appear white, yellow or red.
PIA13217:
Coolest Orbs on the Block (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-07-14 4000x2666x3
Astronomers have obtained the first clear look at a dusty disk closely encircling a massive baby star; this artist's concept shows what such a massive disk might look like.
PIA13275:
Disk Around a Massive Baby Star (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-07-22 Spitzer Space Telescope
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These data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show the signatures of buckyballs in space. Buckyballs, also called C60 or buckministerfullerenes, after architect Buckminister Fuller's geodesic domes.
PIA13287:
Jiggling Soccer-Ball Molecules in Space
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-07-22 Hubble Space Telescope
Spitzer Space Telescope
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NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has at last found buckyballs (resembling soccer balls) in space shown in this artist's concept using Hubble's picture of the NGC 2440 nebula. Hubble image cred: NASA, ESA, STScI
PIA13288:
Space Balls (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-07-22 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This image illustrates that buckyballs -- discovered in space by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope -- closely resemble old fashioned, black-and-white soccer balls, only on much smaller scales.
PIA13289:
Mini Soccer Balls in Space Animation Icon
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-07-22 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's image illustrates vibrating buckyballs -- spherical molecules of carbon discovered in space for the first time by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
PIA13290:
Buckyballs Jiggle Like Jello (Artist Concept) Animation Icon
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-08-26 NGC 6791 Kepler
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This artist's concept illustrates the two Saturn-sized planets discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The star system is oriented edge-on, as seen by Kepler, such that both planets cross in front, or transit, their star, named Kepler-9.
PIA13351:
Worlds on the Edge (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-10-12 Spitzer Space Telescope
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A giant star in a faraway galaxy recently ended its life with a dust-shrouded whimper instead of the more typical bang in this artist's concept based on data from Spitzer's Space Telescope.
PIA13478:
Giant Star Goes Supernova, Smothered by its own Dust (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-10-19 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept based on data found by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows upsilon Andromedae b, a hot gas giant that whips around its star every 4.6 days. Because it is so close to its star, it is tidally locked.
PIA13493:
Planetary Hot Spot Not Under the Glare of Star (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-10-19 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This frame from an animation based on NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope data illustrates an unexpected warm spot on the surface of a gaseous exoplanet.The bright orange patches are the hottest part of the planet.
PIA13494:
Weird Warm Spot on Exoplanet Animation Icon
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-10-19 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows how astronomers located a hot spot on a distant gas planet named upsilon Andromedae b. Termed an exoplanet, it orbits a star beyond our sun, and whips around very closely to its star.
PIA13495:
How to Find a Planetary Hot Spot
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Add Image to Favorite List 2010-12-08 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows the searing-hot gas planet WASP-12b (orange orb) and its star. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope discovered that the planet has more carbon than oxygen, making it the first carbon-rich planet ever observed.
PIA13691:
Hot, Carbon-Rich Planet (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-01-10 Kepler
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Artist's concept of the first rocky world discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The planet, called Kepler 10-b, is shown in front of its host star.
PIA13776:
NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Its First Rocky Planet (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-01-11 Planck
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This map illustrates the numerous star-forming clouds, called cold cores, that European Space Agency's Planck observed throughout our Milky Way galaxy. Planck detected around 10,000 of these cores, thousands of which had never been seen before.
PIA13779:
Clumps of Cold Stuff Across the Sky
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-01-12 Subaru Telescope
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Astronomers have discovered a massive cluster of young galaxies forming in the distant universe. The growing galactic metropolis is known as COSMOS-AzTEC3. This image was taken Japan's Subaru telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.
PIA13782:
Galactic City at the Edge of the Universe
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-02-02 Kepler
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This artist's concept shows Kepler-11 -- the most tightly packed planetary system yet discovered.
PIA13833:
Kepler-11 Planetary System (Artist Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-04-08 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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This artist's concept illustrates a young, red dwarf star surrounded by three planets. NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer is helping to identify young, red dwarf stars that are close to us by detecting their ultraviolet light.
PIA13994:
Planets Under a Red Sun (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-05-19 Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX)
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New results from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer and the Anglo-Australian Telescope atop Siding Spring Mountain in Australia confirm that dark energy is a smooth, uniform force that now dominates over the effects of gravity.
PIA14094:
Dark Energy and Gravity: Yin and Yang of the Universe (Artist's Concept)
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Add Image to Favorite List 2011-06-30 Spitzer Space Telescope
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This artist's concept shows how a normal spiral galaxy around our local universe (left) might have looked back in the distant universe, when astronomers think galaxies would have been filled with larger populations of hot, bright stars (right).
PIA14107:
Galaxies Near and Far (Artist's Concept)
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