NASA / JPL-Caltech / WISE Team

These nine galaxies were observed by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer. Infrared wavelengths have been translated into colors we can see, with the shortest wavelengths shown in blue and the longest wavelengths in red. The galaxy in the center is NGC 1398, a barred spiral. Clockwise from top left, the other galaxies are M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy), M81 (Bode's Galaxy), M83 (Southern Pinwheel Galaxy), NGC 2403, IC342 (Hidden Galaxy), IC 4895 (Barnard's Galaxy), NGC 5907 (Splinter Galaxy) and NGC 628.

A gathering of glorious galaxies

NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, is best-known for making an all-sky survey in search of asteroids, brown dwarfs and perhaps even planets on the edge of our solar system and beyond. But WISE's infrared eyes can also see much more distant objects in a new light. During this week's American Astronomical Society meeting in Boston, the WISE team released pictures of nine glorious galaxies, with infrared wavelengths translated into the visible-light spectrum. In these pictures, the oldest stars look blue. Pockets of newly formed stars have yellow or reddish hues. To learn more about the cosmic menagerie and see bigger versions of the pictures, check out today's news release from the WISE astronomers.

Still more about WISE:


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