Hidden Universe: NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope

Witness our universe in a whole new way! This video series highlights some of the most exciting discoveries from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. In-depth 'Showcase' features, striking 'Gallery Explorer' montages, and other whimsical specials take you beyond the visible to a universe of dust and stars hidden from Earth-bound eyes. Spitzer is the infrared component of the NASA Great Observatory program which also includes Hubble (visible), Chandra (x-ray), and Compton (gamma ray).

Homes Away From Home? Revisiting the Seven Planets of TRAPPIST-1

One year ago, astronomers announced the discovery that seven roughly Earth-sized worlds orbited around the nearby star TRAPPIST-1. Now a year later, additional data have refined our understanding of these planets.We now know more about the TRAPPIST-1 system than any other solar system other than our own.

02-22
04:51

Improving Brown Dwarf Weather Forecasts

This artist's concept animation shows a brown dwarf with bands of clouds, thought to resemble those seen on Neptune and the other outer planets in the solar system.

08-17
00:40

5000 Days in the Life of an Astronomy Robot

May 3rd, 2017 marks the 5,000th day of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope mission. This video gives us a detailed look at six of these days, showing how an automated observatory like Spitzer, which is effectively an astronomy robot, spends its time. It’s overall mission design allows for an unprecedented degree of efficiency, allowing it to study the full range of astronomical phenomena including nearby objects in the solar system, stars in our galaxy, and galaxies out to the edge of the observable universe.

05-03
02:43

Spitzer Beyond

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which launched Aug. 25, 2003, will begin an extended mission—the “Beyond” phase—on Oct. 1, 2016.

08-26
01:42

The Wild Temperature Swings of an Exoplanet

The exoplanet HD80606 b spends most of its time far from its star, but every 111 days it swings in feverishly close. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope measured the planet's extreme temperature swings using infrared light. This allowed astronomers to simulate its atmosphere.

03-28
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Catching a GLIMPSE of the Milky Way

Welcome home! This is our Milky Way galaxy as you’ve never seen it before. Ten years in the making, this is the clearest infrared panorama of our galactic home ever made, courtesy of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

03-20
02:50

10 Years of Innovation

On August 25, 2003, NASA launched the Spitzer Space Telescope to reveal secrets of the infrared universe.

08-23
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Possible Nearby Exoplanet Smaller than Earth (Update)

Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have detected what they believe is an alien world just two-thirds the size of Earth - one of the smallest on record!

08-07
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Cygnus X Marks the Spot (Gallery Explorer)

Over the last half century this Cygnus X has been yielding its secrets to the scrutiny of infrared observations. NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has now provided the best view yet of what we now know is one of the largest single areas of star formation in our Milky Way galaxy.

05-21
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The Galactic Center Revisited (Hidden Universe Gallery Explorer)

Hiding behind the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius is the center of our own Milky Way galaxy, over 25,000 light years away. This patch of sky is mostly dark in visible light, shrouded by dust clouds that lie between us and the Galactic center. But the infrared vision of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope sees through the dust showing us this strange and tumultuous region.

08-23
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The North America Nebula (Gallery Explorer)

Seen here in visible light, the North America Nebula strangely resembles its namesake continent. Expanding our view to include infrared light, the dark dust lanes and concealed stars glow in red colors while the continental gas clouds shift to an ocean-­‐like blue. Pushing entirely into the infrared spectrum, we see even more detail in the convoluted dust clouds.

02-10
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The Art of Exoplanets

While astronomers have identified over 500 planets around other stars, they’re all too small and distant to fill even a single pixel in our most powerful telescopes. That’s why science must rely on art to help us imagine these strange new worlds.

12-23
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The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey (GOODS)

Today's telescopes study the sky across the electromagnetic spectrum. Each part of the spectrum tells us different things about the Universe, giving us more pieces of the cosmic jigsaw puzzle. The most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space have joined forces over the last decade in a unique observing campaign, known as the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey, or GOODS, which reaches across the spectrum and deep back into cosmic time.

10-07
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The Dragon and the Swan (Hidden Universe Gallery Explorer)

Hidden behind a dark veil of dust in the constellation Sagittarius, a lurking dragon has been revealed by the infrared eye of NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. It gives us a glimpse into how spiral arms affect the formation of stars.

07-09
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When Worlds Collide (Showcase)

When worlds collide, the result is spectacular, and astronomers think they’ve detected the aftermath of such an event around another star.

06-01
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The WISE Sky (Gallery Explorer)

In December of 2009, NASA launched its latest infrared telescope, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. This satellite, also known as WISE, is on a mission to map the entire sky in infrared light.

03-19
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The Many Views of the Milky Way (Gallery Explorer)

In May of 2009, the European Space Agency successfully launched the Herschel Space Observatory, a new eye for the infrared universe. Its 3.5 meter mirror lets us see into the far infrared spectrum with unprecedented clarity.

02-05
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The One Ring of Saturn (Showcase)

Astronomers have found One Ring to rule them all, not in the land of Mordor, but around Saturn, the Lord of the Rings of the solar system.

11-25
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Cooking Up Cometary Crystals (Hidden Universe)

The fading light of a flaring young star has shed light on a puzzle involving crystals and comets.

09-03
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Orion Nebula (Gallery Explorer)

Explore the dusty secrets of the Orion Nebula through Spitzer's infrared vision.

06-18
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Krishna Priyanka Bh

Awesome shorts!Thanks for bringing spitzer telescopes' views to homes of people.Please dont stop making this podcast :)

06-10 Reply

iTunes User

For those with iPods, as the title implies.... this is a HD Podcast, thus the bitrate and resolution these video podcasts are saved at are way beyond the capabilities of the iPod.

08-31 Reply

iTunes User

The video/pictures are absolutely AWESOME!!! I have the same problem as others which my Ipod does not show/recognize this video podcast either. I have a 60gig video Ipod. After watching these videos full size on my computer screen though, I know the 2.5 inch screen of the Ipod would not to justice to the HD quality.

08-31 Reply

iTunes User

These shorts are great. As mentioned these are HD shorts so the solution is to pick the one you want in itunes then go to advance on the menu bar and select convert for ipod. It will convert it for you as a movie instead of a podcast but at least you will be able to see it on your ipod and the quality is good. The movie will be saved to your homefolder/ music/ itunes/ movies.

08-31 Reply

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