See the sky in a different light

Gazing at the vast sky on a dark, clear night is humbling. But what if your eyes could see infrared light? The view might look something like NASA’s new interactive map of the galaxy. GLIMPSE360 is a night-sky atlas assembled from over 2 million images taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Because interstellar clouds block visible light, the infrared maps allow you to peer through galactic dust lanes and into the hearts of stellar nurseries. Familiar pan-and-zoom tools allow users to explore the sky. But the most powerful feature is a slider bar that switches the view between visible and infrared light. Suddenly, the power of observing the universe at different wavelengths becomes evident as dark clouds give way to nebulae, star clusters and supernova remnants.

A separate viewer lets you jump right to specific objects, in case browsing aimlessly isn’t your thing. Be sure to check out the galactic center, the Cygnus-X star formation complex and the vast Eta Carina Nebula.