Image:Ssc2003-06k 250.jpg
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| Image ID: ssc2003-06k | Release date: December 19, 2003 |
| Source: Spitzer news release (http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2003-06/ssc2003-06k.shtml) | |
| Title: Lifting the Cosmic Veil | |
| Credit:
Image courtesy of National Aeronautics and Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology. | |
| Description:
This set of four images from the Spitzer Space Telescope was released on December 19, 2003 to demonstrate successful operation of the space-based infrared observatory. Resembling a creature on the run with flames streaming behind it, the Spitzer Space Telescope image of a dark globule in the emission nebula IC 1396 is in spectacular contrast to the view seen in visible light. Spitzer's infrared detectors unveiled the brilliant hidden interior of this opaque cloud of gas and dust for the first time, exposing never-before-seen young stars. <p> The dusty, star-studded arms of a nearby spiral galaxy, Messier 81, are illuminated in a Spitzer image. Red regions in the spiral arms represent infrared emissions from dustier parts of the galaxy where new stars are forming. The image shows the power of Spitzer to explore regions invisible in optical light, and to study star formation on a galactic scale. <p> Spitzer revealed, in its entirety, a massive disc of dusty debris encircling the nearby star Fomalhaut. Such debris discs are the leftover material from the building of a planetary system. While other telescopes have imaged the outer Fomalhaut disc, none was able to provide a full picture of the inner region. Spitzer's ability to detect dust at various temperatures allows it to fill in this missing gap, providing astronomers with insight into the evolution of planetary systems. <p> Data from Spitzer of the young star HH 46-IR, and from a distant galaxy 3.25 billion light-years away, show the presence of water and small organic molecules not only in the here and now, but, for the first time, far back in time when life on Earth first emerged. | |
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