High-Tech Telescopes Yield New Galactic Photos: Gallery

Some of the most important telescopes ever created are now floating in space. A freshly repaired Hubble Space Telescope is again snapping pictures, NASA's Kepler telescope is orbiting Earth fresh off its first light and Herschel—the largest space telescope ever—has taken its first images since its May 14th launch. While astronomers using ground-based telescopes are finding exoplanets at an impressive rate, thanks to refined techniques and collaborative efforts, space telescopes operating from beyond Earth's atmosphere have a geographic edge: With no interference, they can get a clearer view of the universe. The following images show some of the spectacular sights astronomers have been able to glimpse through the new hardware.

By Lisa Merolla

Published on: June 25, 2009

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Herschel Space Observatory

(Photograph by ESA and the PACS Consortium)

The European Space Agency launched Herschel—the largest space telescope ever—in May. Here is one of its first images, of galaxy M51, also known as the Whirlpool galaxy. The different colors correspond to different wavelength bands of the telescope's Photoconductor Array Camera and Spectrometer. Blue represents regions of warm dust heated by young stars, while red indicates cooler dust.


CLICK FOR MORE High-Tech Telescopes Yield New Galactic Photos
1. Herschel	2. Kepler Space Telescope	3. Spitzer Space Telescope
4. Galaxy Evolution Explorer	5. Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-Ray Observatory	6. Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope

• GALLERY: The World's 10 Most Powerful Telescopes

• HOW-TO: Build Your Own Dobsonian Telescope

• EARLIER: The ALMA Telescope Construction

• PLUS: Solving the Biggest Explosion in History

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