spacetelescope

NASA Releases Clearest Infrared Milky Way Panorama Ever Made, Comes in at 20GP

20 gigapixels might not seem like a lot in the world of super-high-res images. After all, we shared a 681 gigapixel image of just the moon's north pole the other day. But when you're talking infrared images of the milky way, the 20-gigapixel panorama that NASA just released yesterday is the clearest ever captured, and took them TEN YEARS to shoot.

Video: The James Webb Space Telescope and the Future of Deep Space Imagery

Infrared imagery has shown its value in many different respects: from keeping an eye on photosynthesis to lending a new perspective on a decades-long humanitarian disaster. But did you know that the future of outer space imagery also lies in infrared technology?

The James Webb Space Telescope, which is set to launch in 2018, is an infrared telescope that is primed to see much further than even Hubble ever could, piercing into the furthest reaches of our cosmos and answering questions we may not have even thought to ask yet.