SPIRE Dark Field animation (VIDEO)
Caption
The SPIRE Dark Field observed at different wavelengths (colours) moving from the shortest to the longest infrared wavelengths. The shorter wavelength images are from the Spitzer space telescope using the IRAC camera at 3.5 and 8 micrometres and the MIPS camera at 24 micrometres. These wavelengths are between 10-100 times short than the SPIRE observations and therefore appear sharper (higher resolution). The SPIRE images at 250, 250, 500 micrometres (and the final 250 + 350 + 500 combined RGB image) appear blurrier due to the lower resolution at the wavelengths, highlighting the challenges in identifying individual galaxies in the SPIRE maps. The green cross hair marks the same galaxy for reference in each of the images emphasising how different the sky looks at different wavelengths.
Credit
Chris Pearson et al. (Herschel), Krick et al. 2009 (Spitzer)
Usage Restrictions
No restrictions.
License
Public Domain