Spitzer Space Telescope

They say there is no place like home. For Caltech's George Helou, the essence of that phrase carries over to the recognition of his accomplishments. This past year, he has received numerous honors from Lebanon, his country of origin, including his election to the Lebanese Academy of Sciences. The tributes bestowed by the Mediterranean nation cite Helou's distinguished career in astronomy in the United States and Europe.

Imagine you are a high school student walking into your science class in September and you learn that your teacher is doing research with NASA and you can actually participate This experience is occurring in schools around the US as more and more teachers become part of the NASA/IPAC Teacher Archive Research Program. 2012 marks the program's 8th year.

The stars we see today weren't always as serene as they appear, floating alone in the dark of night. Most stars, likely including our own sun, grew up in cosmic turmoil, as illustrated in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

The cold dust that builds blazing stars is revealed in new images that combine observations from the Herschel Space Observatory and Spitzer Space Telescope. The new images map the dust in the galaxies known as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, two of the closest neighbors to our own Milky Way galaxy.

A remote, blob-shaped galaxy has been found bursting with stars by NASA's Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes.

In the distant reaches of the universe, almost 13 billion light-years from Earth, a strange species of galaxy lay hidden. Cloaked in dust and dimmed by the intervening distance, even the Hubble Space Telescope couldn't spy it. It took the revealing power of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to uncover not one, but four remarkably red galaxies.

The Shape of the Universe is an exhibition of deep space photography, curated by artist David Em. The exhibition features recent images captured by NASA's Hubble, Spitzer, and Chandra space telescopes, as well as several ground-based astronomical telescopes. The Shape of the Universe is hosted at the Art Gallery, Pasadena City College, with a free opening reception on Wednesday, November 30, 6-9pm PST. Gallery admission, reception and related events are all free of charge and open to the public.

Like the Milky Way, Messier 83 is classified as a barred spiral galaxy due to the bar-like pattern of stars that run through its center.

The Tarantula nebula can be seen here in a web of dust and multimillion-degree gas.

A mystery that began nearly 2,000 years ago, when Chinese astronomers witnessed what would turn out to be an exploding star in the sky, has been solved.