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Pinwheel Looks 'Fab' in Infrared

NASA/JPL-Caltech/STScI · Download full size image

The tangled arms of the Pinwheel galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 101, are decked out in red in this new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The Pinwheel galaxy is located 27 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is what's called a flocculent spiral, which means that its spiral arms are not well defined.

The red color shows the dust, while the blue glow around the galaxy is from starlight.

In this infrared composite, blue indicates light with a wavelength of 3.6 microns, green corresponds to 4.5 microns, and red to 5.8 and 8.0 microns. The contribution from starlight (measured at 3.6 microns) has been subtracted from the 5.8- and 8-micron images to enhance the visibility of the dust features. Posted on: 04 Sep, 2008

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Quartz-like Crystals Found in Planetary Disks Double the Rubble Young Solar System in the Making Anatomy of a Busted Comet Stellar Work of Art Massive Young Stars Trigger Stellar Birth Supernova Flashback Supernova Flashback: Annotated Laser-Sharp Jet Splits Water Spitzer Reveals Stellar 'Family Tree' Spitzer Reveals Stellar 'Family Tree' MS1054 Collage 'No Organics' Zone Circles Pinwheel Pinwheel Looks 'Fab' in Infrared 'Peony Nebula' Star Settles for Silver Medal Super Starburst Galaxy Super Starburst Galaxy The Fireworks Galaxy (NGC 6946) Spitzer Finds Clarity in the Inner Milky Way Inner Milky Way Raging with Star Formation Ghostly Stellar Echoes Ghostly Ring Bursting with Stars Omega Centauri Looks Radiant in Infrared Our Milky Way Gets a Makeover Our Milky Way Gets a Makeover (Annotated) Spectrum AA Tauri Spectrum AS 205N Diamonds in Space Rocky, Terrestrial Worlds Astronomers Uncover One of the Youngest and Brightest Galaxies in the Early Universe Young Stars in Their Baby Blanket of Dust Young Stars in Their Baby Blanket of Dust Celestial Cities and the Roads That Connect Them Slender Galaxy with Robust Black Hole Galaxies of all Shapes Host Black Holes Accretion Disk Around Binary Star System WZ Sge Dusty Celestial Ornaments Cosmic Ornament of Gas and Dust Dissecting the Wake of a Supernova Explosion Our Galactic Neighbors A Classic Beauty Inner Turmoil of Growing Galaxies Spinning Top Star Baby Picture of our Solar System UX Tau A Bubbly Little Star Missing Black Holes Found! Cosmic Caper Unfolds in Infrared Wanted: Galactic Thief Who Steals Gas A Wealth of Dust Grains in Quasar Winds Bursting with Stars and Black Holes Dust in the Quasar Wind Birth of an Earth-like Planet Coronet: A Star-Formation Neighbor Infrared Coronet Cluster Spitzer Sees Water Loud and Clear Steamy Solar System Water's Early Journey in a Solar System The Infrared Helix (Expanded View) Dust in Hell Stellar Families Whopper Galaxy Collision Fearsome Foursome 'Fantastic Four' Galaxies (with planet) Galactic Pileup Evidence for Strange Stellar Family Exoplanet Forecast: Hot and Wet Steaming Hot Planet Steaming Hot Planet in Infrared A Supernova's Shockwaves Multiwavelength M81 Dwarfs in Coma Cluster Depth Perception in Space Distance to Dark Bodies Rings Around the Galaxy Young Stars Emerge from Orion's Head Young Stars Emerge from Orion's Head First Map of Alien World Blacker than Black The Heart of the Rosette Every Rose Has a Thorn Spitzer Digs Up Hidden Stars Highway to the Danger Zone The Seven Sisters Pose for Spitzer Pink Pleiades Anomalous Arms Solar System with Snug Suns Alien Sunset Comet Galaxy Abell 2667 Hot, Dry, and Cloudy Comets Kick up Dust in Helix Nebula Older Galaxy Pair Has Surprisingly Youthful Glow Luminous Blue Variable: Destined To Be a Supernova? Cosmic Epic Unfolds in Infrared Cosmic Epic Unfolds in Infrared (with insets) Eagle Nebula Flaunts Its Infrared Feathers Unwrapping the Pillars Forecasting Weather on Distant Worlds Gas Giants Form Quickly The Universe's First Fireworks Brief History of the Universe Red Giant Plunging Through Space Stellar Debris in the Large Magellanic Cloud Chaos at the Heart of Orion Where Galactic Snakes Live Where Galactic Snakes Live (Artistically Enhanced) Lighting up a Dead Star's Layers The Spirit of Halloween Lives On as a Dead Star Creates Celestial Havoc Seeing Stars in Serpens Once an Onion, Always an Onion Forensic Evidence of a Galactic Collision The Light and Dark Sides of a Distant Planet Exotic World Blisters Under the Sun A Star's Close Encounter Amazing Andromeda Galaxy Brown Dwarf Companion Story of Stellar Birth Our Chaotic Neighbor What's Old Is New in the Large Magellanic Cloud Baby Stars in the Witch Head Nebula Black Hole Spills Kaleidoscope of Color Stars Can't Spin Out of Control Supernova Dust Factory in M74 Dusty Death of a Massive Star Andromeda Makes a Splash Galaxies Gather at Great Distances Highway of Stars Baby Stars Brewing in the Witch Head Nebula Stellar Jets The (Almost) Invisible Aftermath of a Massive Star's Death A Million Comet Pieces Comet Stepping Stones Ready for the Cosmic Ball Eyes in the Sky Great Observatories Present Rainbow of a Galaxy Finding Faint Galaxies Circle of Ashes SCUBA Galaxy Stellar Rubble May Be Planetary Building Blocks Extreme Planets Galactic Hearts of Glass Supersized Disk Supersized Disk (annotated) Comet 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead Star Circumbinary Disk Artist's Impression of Massive Star Cluster Portrait of Our Dusty Past Belt of Dust Itsy Bitsy Solar System Out of the Darkness Comes Stars Sowing the Seeds of Planets? Planets May leave Tracks in Dust Milky Way Bar Milky Way Bar (annotated) Planet X: New Member of our Solar System Ingredients for Life Disk Around Red Dwarf Stars in the Stephenson 34 System Space Eyes See Comet Tempel 1 It's a Rocky World Alien Asteroid Belt Compared to our Own Blinded by the Light Shimmering in Infrared Light Mini Solar System in the Making 'Mini-Me' Solar System At the Heart of Blobs Massive Smash-Up at Vega A Distant Solar System The View from Within AU Microscopii's Disk Model of AU Microscopii Disk Artist's Conception of a Kuiper Belt Object Artist's Conception of L1014 The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems Out of the Dust, A Planet is Born Artist's Conception of Sedna Size Comparisons Size Comparisons (annotated) Jets of Outflowing Gas Burst from a Forming Star Extrasolar Planet Sequence of Astronomical Objects in Visible Light Sequence of Astronomical Objects in Infrared Light Great Galactic Buddies Huge Hidden Halo! Double Helix Nebula A Shocking Surprise in Stephan's Quintet Crystal Storm in Distant Galaxy NGC 4579 Little Dust Grains in Giant Stellar Disks Cosmic Tornado Evidence for Comets Found in Dead Star's Dust A Hidden, Massive Star Cluster Awash with Red Supergiants A Cauldron of Stars at the Galaxy's Center The Milky Way Center Aglow with Dust The Infrared Helix The Mark of a Dying Star Stellar Snowflake Cluster Life's Starting Materials Found in Dusty Disk A GLIMPSE of the Milky Way A New Star Cluster Star Clusters Found in the Milky Way Dwarf Galaxies Swimming in Tidal Tails Chaotic Star Birth Now You See Stars, Now You Don't Towering Infernos Fiery First Stars Black Widow Nebula Hiding in the Dust A SWIRE Picture is Worth Billions of Years Planet Clumps and Crystals around Brown Dwarfs Three Faces of Andromeda Big Galaxy in Baby Universe Spitzer and Hubble Team Up To Find 'Big Baby' Galaxies in the Newborn Universe NGC 7793 NGC 3627 (M66) NGC 3351 (M95) NGC 2976 NGC 1566 Tempel 1's Secret Ingredients Revealed Spitzer Turns Two Gorilla Black Hole in the Mist Charting Ingredients for Life Jupiter-Family Comets A Year in the Life of an Infrared Echo Dead Star Rumbles Cassiopeia A: Death Becomes Her Gamma-Ray Burst 050525a Interacting Galaxy Pair Arp 107 Interacting Galaxy Pair Arp 65 Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant (IRAC-MIPS Image) Crab Nebula Supernova Remnant (IRAC Image) All Pillars Point to Eta Spitzer Spies Spectacular Sombrero Super-Comet or Big Asteroid Belt? Splendid Splinter A Bubble Bursts The Language of Planetary Light Fingerprints in the Light Ring Beholds a Delicate Flower Planetary Building Blocks Found in Surprising Place New Views of a Familiar Beauty Stellar 'Incubators' Seen Cooking up Stars Riding a Trail of Debris Mysterious Blob Galaxies Revealed Tiny Particles, So Far Away Is There Anybody Home Kuiper Belt Object 2002 AW197 Spitzer Spectrum of Ices in a Protoplanetary Disc The Starless Core That Isn't First Peek at Spitzer's Legacy: Mysterious Whirlpool Galaxy 'Galactic Ghoul' Rears Its Spooky Head Galactic Fossil Found Behind Curtain of Dust Spitzer Digs Up Galactic Fossil Kepler's Supernova Remnant: Views from Chandra, Hubble and Spitzer NASA's Great Observatories Provide a Detailed View of Kepler's Supernova Remnant Fire Within the Antennae Galaxies Ring of Stellar Death Morphology of Our Galaxy's 'Twin' Hidden Black Holes Old and 'Red' Distant Galaxies Infrared Detective to the Rescue A Parallelogram-Shaped Meal A Parallelogram-Shaped Meal Spectra Show Protoplanetary Disc Structures Spitzer Spectra of Protoplanetary Discs Stellar Jewels Shine in New Spitzer Image Dissection of a Galaxy A Natal Microcosm Star Formation in the DR21 Region Star Formation in the DR21 Region Star Formation in Henize 206 NGC 7129 The Tarantula Nebula Comet Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 Fomalhaut IRAS F00183-7111 HH46/47 HH46/47 Messier 81 Messier 81 Messier 81 Dark Globule in IC 1396 Dark Globule in IC 1396 Aliveness Test Image Workers prepare to connect SIRTF to its payload attach fitting Workers prepare to connect SIRTF to its payload attach fitting Workers prepare to connect SIRTF to its payload attach fitting Workers prepare to connect SIRTF to its payload attach fitting Workers prepare to connect SIRTF to its payload attach fitting SIRTF in a clean room at KSC SIRTF's protective cover is removed SIRTF rotated to a vertical position in a KSC clean room SIRTF in a KSC clean room SIRTF moved into a hangar at KSC SIRTF delivered to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Spitzer awaiting installation of the launch faring Spitzer awaiting installation of the launch faring Spitzer awaiting installation of the launch faring Spitzer back in the clean room Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect Spitzer Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect Spitzer Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect Spitzer Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect Spitzer Workers at Kennedy Space Center in Florida inspect Spitzer Spitzer sits inside one half of its launch faring Spitzer sits inside one half of its launch faring Spitzer sits inside one half of its launch faring Spitzer's launch faring is installed Spitzer is moved into position Spitzer is moved into position Spitzer is moved into position Spitzer is moved into position Spitzer is moved into position Spitzer is moved into position Spitzer attached to its payload attach fitting, which will connect the satellite to its Delta II launch vehicle. Preparing Spitzer at KSC Preparing Spitzer at KSC Preparing Spitzer at KSC Preparing Spitzer at KSC Spitzer in a hangar at Kennedy Space Center. Spitzer in a hangar at KSC being prepared to be placed atop its rocket. Spitzer in a hangar at KSC being prepared to be placed atop its rocket. Spitzer in a hangar at KSC being prepared to be placed atop its rocket. Spitzer at Lockheed Martin shortly before being shipped to Florida. Spitzer under construction at Lockheed Martin. Spitzer under construction at Lockheed Martin. Spitzer under construction at Lockheed Martin. Spitzer under construction at Lockheed Martin. Spitzer after CTA-spacecraft integration. The CTA being prepared for vibration testing. The assembled telescope. The telescope during CTA integration. The assembled telescope. Artist rendition of Spitzer in its heliocentric orbit. Artist's conception of Spitzer ejecting its dust cover. Spitzer rendered against an infrared (100 micron) sky. Spitzer gathering solar energy to power itself. Spitzer departing the Earth soon after launch. Spitzer points its high-gain antenna towards the Earth. Views of the Spitzer observatory in 5 different orientations. Spitzer's solar panels shield the Observatory from the Sun, shown here in the infrared. Infrared view of Spitzer looking towards the Rho Ophiuchi at 100 microns. Infrared view of Spitzer looking towards the Rho Ophiuchi at 100 microns. Infrared view of Spitzer near the Rho Ophiuchi at 100 microns. Infrared view of Spitzer against the Milky Way and Orion at 100 microns. Spitzer 3-D model rendered with an alpha channel (for compositing). One-fifth scale model. One-fifth scale model.

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