Thursday, October 26, 2006

Spitzer

No it's not a dog, or a disgusting person, but a telescope. The Spitzer is essentially an infrared version of the Hubble Space Telescope and at the moment is being used to study the Andromeda Galaxy. It has produced this absolutely beautiful image:



It has also helped astronomers discover that a smaller galaxy - Messier 32 (being the 32nd object that French astronomer Charles Messier catalouged in his 1774 work listing 45 deep space objects) has punched a hole in Andromeda's disk of spiral arms.

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