The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

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This  swirling landscape of stars is known as the North America Nebula. In  visible light, the region resembles North America, but in this new  infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, the continent  disappears. Where did the continent go? 
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The reason you don't see it in  Spitzer's view is due, in part, to the fact that infrared light can  penetrate dust whereas visible light cannot. Dusty, dark clouds in the  visible image become transparent in Spitzer's view. In addition,  Spitzer's infrared detectors pick up the glow of dusty cocoons  enveloping baby stars.
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 Clusters of young stars (about one million years  old) can be found throughout the image. Slightly older but still very  young stars (about 3-5 million years) are also liberally scattered  across the complex. 
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Some areas of this nebula are still very thick with  dust and appear dark even in Spitzer's view and are likely to be the  youngest stars in the complex (less than a million years old).
Image  Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Τρίτη, 22 Μάρτιος 2011 6:00:00 πμ
 
 
 
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