Galaxy Panorama

  • Released Thursday, June 12, 2014
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Light shining from stars in the Milky Way can take thousands of years to reach our eyes. That is, if clouds of interstellar gas and dust don’t get in the way. But dust isn’t just some astronomical nuisance. These tiny particles may one day condense into newborn stars, which may then go on to host a system of planets. Over the past 10 years, NASA’s Spitzer space telescope has snapped more than 2 million images of the Milky Way’s gas, dust and stars in infrared light—a type of light that is invisible to humans but pierces through dense cosmic clouds. Now, the images have been stitched into a seamless portrait that provides a 360-degree view of our galaxy from the perspective of Earth. Watch the video to learn more.

Take a tour of the Milky Way.

Take a tour of the Milky Way.

Learn more about Spitzer and its survey of the Milky Way in this video.

See the complete Milky Way panorama in this video.

Dust (red), gas (green) and stars (blue) are seen in this image taken by Spitzer.

Dust (red), gas (green) and stars (blue) are seen in this image taken by Spitzer.

Spitzer imaged only about 3 percent of the sky, but this narrow region contains nearly half the stars in the galaxy.

Spitzer imaged only about 3 percent of the sky, but this narrow region contains nearly half the stars in the galaxy.

The area between the green lines shows the region of the Milky Way viewable by Spitzer.

The area between the green lines shows the region of the Milky Way viewable by Spitzer.

For More Information

See NASA.gov

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Video and images courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech

This page was originally published on Thursday, June 12, 2014.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:50 PM EDT.