More breathtaking photos from space, the Spitzer telescope

Everyone has seen the incredible photos of space and the galaxies beyond thanks to the groundbreaking technology of the Hubble space telescope. The Hubble only views visible light, but there are many other kinds of light that are invisible to the human eye, such as gamma, X-ray, ultraviolet and infrared.

In 2003, the Spitzer Space Telescope was launched, specifically engineered to capture infrared light. Infrared light is just beyond red on the visible spectrum of light. The resulting images take on an almost three-dimensional, fire-like form, picking up many previously unseen details of deep space.