IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite) Archives

January 15, 2025January 15, 2025 by Evan Gough

About a Third of Supermassive Black Holes are Hiding

A supermassive black hole surrounded by a torus of gas and dust is depicted in four different wavelengths of light in this artist’s concept. Visible light (top right) and low-energy X-rays (bottom left) are blocked by the torus; infrared (top left) is scattered and reemitted; and some high energy X-rays (bottom right) can penetrate the torus. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Supermassive black holes can have trillions of times more mass than the Sun, only exist in specific locations, and could number in the trillions. How can objects like that be hiding? They’re shielded from our view by thick columns of gas and dust.

However, astronomers are developing a way to find them: by looking for donuts that glow in the infrared.

June 21, 2022June 21, 2022 by Nancy Atkinson

A Totally new View of the Large Magellanic Cloud (and more!) From Retired Telescopes

The Large Magellanic Cloud, as seen by the Herschel Space Telescope, Planck, COBE and IRAS. Credit: ESA and NASA.

ESA and NASA dusted off some old data from four retired space telescopes and combined forces to reveal new images of the four galaxies that our closest to our own Milky Way galaxy. One thing is common among the four new images: they are full of dust!