This painterly portrait of a star-forming cloud, called NGC 346, is a combination of multiwavelength light from three telescopes.
The Cassiopeia A supernova's first flash of radiation makes clumps of dust unusually hot.
A jet of gas firing out of a very young star can be seen ramming into a wall of material in this infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Generations of stars can be seen in this new infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Generations of stars can be seen in this new infrared portrait from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The Pinwheel galaxy, otherwise known as Messier 101, sports bright red edges in this new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
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.
This movie begins by showing a stretch of the dusty and frenzied central region of our Milky Way galaxy.
If our galaxy, the Milky Way, were to host its own version of the Olympics, the title for the brightest known star would go to a massive star called Eta Carina.
The green and red splotch in this image is the most active star-making galaxy in the very distant universe. Nicknamed "Baby Boom."
The most active star-forming galaxy in the distant universe, nicknamed the "Baby Boom" galaxy, loosely resembles the galaxy shown here.
More than 444,580 frames from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were stitched together to create this portrait of the raging star-formation occurring in the inner Milky Way.
More than 800,000 frames from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were stitched together to create this infrared portrait of dust and stars radiating in the inner Milky Way.
Like early explorers mapping the continents of our globe, astronomers are busy charting the spiral structure of our galaxy, the Milky Way.
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope highlights dramatic changes in phenomena referred to as light echoes around the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant.
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the remnant of a star that exploded, called Cassiopeia A (center) and its surrounding "light echoes."
This image shows a ghostly ring extending seven light-years across around the corpse of a massive star.
A cluster brimming with millions of stars glistens like an iridescent opal in this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Called Omega Centauri, the sparkling orb of stars is like a miniature galaxy.
This plot of infrared data shows the strong signature of water vapor in the disk of gas and dust surrounding a young star.
This artist's concept shows a very young star encircled by a disk of gas and dust, the raw materials from which rocky planets such as Earth are thought to form.