Spitzer Space Telescope

Ring Around Tabby’s Star – NASA

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Ring Around Tabby’s Star – NASA

This Oct. 4, 2017, illustration shows a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbiting KIC 8462852, also known as Boyajian’s Star or Tabby’s Star. The star has experienced unusual dips in brightness over a matter of days, as well as much subtler but longer-term dimming trends. Scientists proposed several explanations for this unexpected behavior, ranging from … Read more

Planets Beware: NASA Unburies Danger Zones of Star Cluster – NASA

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Planets Beware: NASA Unburies Danger Zones of Star Cluster – NASA

Most stars form in collections, called clusters or associations, that include very massive stars. These giant stars send out large amounts of high-energy radiation, which can disrupt relatively fragile disks of dust and gas that are in the process of coalescing to form new planets. A team of astronomers used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, in … Read more

NASA Images Help Explain Eating Habits of Massive Black Hole – NASA

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NASA Images Help Explain Eating Habits of Massive Black Hole – NASA

Data from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope has given scientists new insights into why some supermassive black holes shine differently than others. In images from NASA’s retired Spitzer Space Telescope, streams of dust thousands of light-years long flow toward the supermassive black hole at the heart of the Andromeda galaxy. It turns out these streams … Read more

NASA’s Roman Team Selects Survey to Map Our Galaxy’s Far Side – NASA

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NASA’s Roman Team Selects Survey to Map Our Galaxy’s Far Side – NASA

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has announced plans for an unprecedented survey of the plane of our Milky Way galaxy. It will peer deeper into this region than any other survey, mapping more of our galaxy’s stars than all previous observations combined. “There’s a really broad range of science we can explore with … Read more

NASA Telescopes Start the Year With a Double Bang – NASA

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NASA Telescopes Start the Year With a Double Bang – NASA

A colorful, festive image shows different types of light containing the remains of not one, but at least two, exploded stars. This supernova remnant is known as 30 Doradus B (30 Dor B for short) and is part of a larger region of space where stars have been continuously forming for the past 8 to … Read more

Meet the Infrared Telescopes That Paved the Way for NASA’s Webb – NASA

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Meet the Infrared Telescopes That Paved the Way for NASA’s Webb – NASA

The Webb telescope has opened a new window onto the universe, but it builds on missions going back 40 years, including Spitzer and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite. On Dec. 25, NASA will celebrate the two-year launch anniversary of the James Webb Space Telescope – the largest and most powerful space observatory in history. The clarity … Read more

Chandra Catches Spider Pulsars Destroying Nearby Stars – NASA

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Chandra Catches Spider Pulsars Destroying Nearby Stars – NASA

A group of dead stars known as “spider pulsars” are obliterating companion stars within their reach. Data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory of the globular cluster Omega Centauri is helping astronomers understand how these spider pulsars prey on their stellar companions. A pulsar is the spinning dense core that remains after a massive star collapses into itself to form a neutron star. Rapidly rotating … Read more