Spitzer sees a star factory in infrared

NASA’s recently retired Spitzer Space Telescope was capable of revealing aspects of space invisible to the human eye. It was fixated on infrared, observing in a wavelength longer than visible light.

In this image, Spitzer honed in on ‘star factory’ and nebula W51, which is home to a plethora of baby stars in the process of creating planetary systems like our own. Starlight from these stellar youngsters is often blocked by surrounding gas and dust but Spitzer was able to see through it, revealing activity behind a cosmic curtain.