NASA's new infrared telescope, WISE, has released its first images.

The Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer has returned more than 250,000 raw images. To celebrate its performance thus far, NASA selected four of them for processing and publication.

Above, you can see the comet, Siding Spring, which was discovered in 2007 by Australian observers. Its 10 million-mile-long tail is made of glowing dust pushed away from its nucleus by the solar wind. (More WISE photos)

In the image below, we see the Andromeda galaxy's dusty spiral arms. WISE has four detectors in the infrared spectrum, which measure light with wavelengths of 3.4, 4.6, 12, and 22 microns. By using only the detectors that can measure the longest wavelengths, scientists can generate images like the one below, which shows just the dusty arms of the galaxy, which are heated by young stars. READ MORE

[Sources: NASA, Wired.com, Photo Images: ©NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA

--
Posted By Gunkee to quantumNOTES - Science Space Technology News and Random Thoughts at 2/17/2010 04:15:00 PM