This movie zooms in to reveal the "Peony nebula" star -- the new second-brightest star in the Milky Way, discovered in part by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

In this animation, a seething cauldron of light appears to bubble and ooze around the remains of a giant star that astronomers have been watching tear itself apart for the last 300 years. This movie flips quickly between different observations taken over three years by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Beginning in the center, the well-studied Cassiopeia A supernova remnant is shown. Cassiopeia A is the remnant of a once massive star that died in a violent supernova explosion. It consists of a dead star, called a neutron star, and a surrounding shell of material that was blasted off as the star died. Panning outward, "light echoes" create the illusion of motion in the clouds, as different areas of the material are lit up in succession by the light flash of the supernova.

This animation illustrates how a light echo works, and how an optical illusion of material moving outward is created. A light echo occurs when a star explodes, acting like a cosmic flashbulb. The light from this explosion zips through nearby dust clumps, illuminating and heating them up slightly. This brief period of warming causes them to glow in infrared, like a chain of Christmas bulbs lighting up one by one. The animation starts by showing the explosion of a star, which results in a flash of light that moves outward in all directions. The direction of our line of sight from Earth is indicated by the blue arrow.

This artist's animation begins by showing a dark and dusty corner of space where little visible light can escape. The animation then transitions to an infrared view taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, revealing an embryonic star with dramatic jets. This infrared portrait gives us a rare look at what our own solar system looked like billions of years ago. Stars form out of spinning clouds, or envelopes, of gas and dust. As the envelopes flatten and collapse, jets of gas stream outward and a swirling disk of planet-forming material takes shape around the forming star. Eventually, the envelope and jets disappear, leaving a newborn star with a suite of planets. This process takes millions of years.

This animation shows the first-ever map of the surface of an exoplanet, or a planet beyond our solar system. The map, which shows temperature variations across the cloudy tops of a gas giant called HD 189733b, is made up of infrared data taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Everything else shown, for example the star and the lines, are artistic illustrations. The movie begins by showing a two-dimensional view of the map. Hotter temperatures are represented in brighter colors. The map is then shown over the three-dimensional surface of the planet, and the movie spins around, revealing the planet's star. A line projecting from the star to the planet highlights where the planet is directly hit by starlight -- a point known as "high noon."

This artist's animation illustrates the hottest planet yet observed in the universe. The scorching ball of gas, a "hot Jupiter" called HD 149026b, is a sweltering 3,700 degrees Fahrenheit (2,040 degrees Celsius) -- about three times hotter than the rocky surface of Venus, the hottest planet in our solar system. The planet is so hot that astronomers believe it is absorbing almost all of the heat from its star, and reflecting very little to no light. Objects that reflect no sunlight are black. Consequently, HD 149026b might be the blackest known planet in the universe, in addition to the hottest.

Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope were able to create the first-ever map of the surface of a planet beyond our solar system. The planet, a hot and cloudy gas giant called HD 189733b, is located 60 light-years from Earth in the constellation Vulpecula. It is so far away that even the best telescopes can't distinguish the light of the planet from that of its star. So how did astronomers see this planet's cloudy surface? They used Spitzer's infrared vision to observe the HD 189733 system as the planet, HD 189733b, first crossed in front of its parent star, then passed behind, as illustrated in this movie. HD 189733b is what is known as a transiting planet, which means that it is inclined in such a way that it eclipses its star from Earth's point of view. This planet is also thought to be tidally locked to its star, meaning that one face, termed the day side, always "looks at" its fiery hot sun.

This movie begins by showing an optical image of the Rosette nebula, a turbulent star-forming region located 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros. The view then changes to show the same region as viewed by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

"The further on the edge, the hotter the intensity," sings Kenny Loggins in "Danger Zone," a song made famous by the movie Top Gun. The same words ring true for young, cooler stars like our sun that live in the danger zones around scorching hot stars, called O-stars. The closer a young, maverick star happens to be to a super hot O-star, the more likely its burgeoning planets will be blasted into space. This artist's animation illustrates how this process works. The movie begins by showing an O-star in a murky star-forming region. It then pans out to show a young, cooler star and its swirling disk of planet-forming material. Disks like this one, called protoplanetary disks, are where planets are born. Gas and dust in a disk clumps together into tiny balls that sweep through the material, growing in size to eventually become full-grown planets. The young star happens to lie within the "danger zone" around the O-star, which means that it is too close to the hot star to keep its disk. Radiation and winds from the O-star boil and blow away the material, respectively. This process, called photoevaporation, is sped up here but takes anywhere from 100,000 to about 1,000,000 years. Without a disk, the young star will not be able to produce planets.

This artist's animation depicts a faraway solar system like our own -- except for one big difference. Planets and asteroids circle around not one, but two suns. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that such solar systems might be common in the universe. The movie begins by showing two snug, sun-like stars. It then pans out to show an Earth-like planet and a surrounding disk of asteroids and comets. Spitzer did not see any planets directly, but it detected dust that is kicked up from disks like this one. The disks were spotted circling all the way around several double, or binary, stars, some of which were closer together than Earth is to our sun. In fact, Spitzer found more disks in orbit around close-knit binary stars than single stars. This could mean that planets prefer two parent stars to one, but more research is needed to figure out exactly what's going on.

This artist's concept animation shows a cloudy Jupiter-like planet that orbits very close to its fiery hot star. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was recently used to capture spectra, or molecular fingerprints, of two "hot Jupiter" worlds (HD 209458b and HD 189733b) like the one depicted here. This is the first time a spectrum has ever been obtained for an exoplanet, or a planet beyond our solar system.

This artist's animation illustrates the universe's early years, from its explosive formation to its dark ages to its first stars and mini-galaxies. Scientists using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found patches of infrared light splattered across the sky that might be the collective glow of clumps of the universe's first objects. Astronomers do not know if these first objects were stars or "quasars," which are black holes voraciously consuming surrounding gas.

This video shows how a Hubble image and a Spitzer image of the Orion Nebula were combined to create a new, multi-wavelength image. Hubble ultraviolet and visible-light data are mapped to blue and green. Spitzer infrared data are mapped to orange and red. The combined image comes alive with new colors.

This video cycles between the Hubble view, the Spitzer view, and the combined Hubble-Spitzer view of the Orion Nebula.

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is a galactic ghost buster, spotting hidden massive stars and other monsters lurking in our galaxy.

This artist's animation shows the explosion of a massive star, the remains of which are named Cassiopeia A. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence that the star exploded with some degree of order, preserving chunks of its onion-like layers as it blasted apart. The movie begins by showing the star before it died, when its layers of elements (shown in different colors) were stacked neatly, with the heaviest at the core and the lightest at the top. The star is then shown blasting to smithereens. Spitzer found evidence that the star's original layers were preserved, flinging outward in all directions, but not at the same speeds. In other words, some chunks of the star sped outward faster than others, as illustrated by the animation. The movie ends with an actual picture of Cassiopeia A taken by Spitzer. The colored layers containing different elements are seen next to each other because they traveled at different speeds.

This artist's animation shows a blistering world revolving around its nearby "sun." NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope observed a planetary system like this one, as the planet's sunlit and dark hemispheres swung alternately into the telescope's view. Based on the rise and fall of the planet's infrared light, or heat, Spitzer was able to measure the difference in temperature between the two sides of the planet -- about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit). According to the astronomers, this means that the sunlit side of the planet is always as hot as fire, while the dark side is potentially as cold as ice.

This artist's animation shows a blistering world revolving around its nearby "sun." NASA's infrared Spitzer Space Telescope observed a planetary system like this one, as the planet's sunlit and dark hemispheres swung alternately into the telescope's view. Based on the rise and fall of the planet's infrared light, or heat, Spitzer was able to measure the difference in temperature between the two sides of the planet -- about 1,400 degrees Celsius (2,550 degrees Fahrenheit). According to the astronomers, this means that the sunlit side of the planet is always as hot as fire, while the dark side is potentially as cold as ice.

This movie begins with a visible view of the famous Orion constellation. Superimposed on the area near Orion's sword is a visible-light picture taken by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, headquartered in Tucson, Ariz. The movie then zooms into an infrared view taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and ends by panning across the Spitzer image.

This artist's animation demonstrates how a dusty planet-forming disk can slow down a whirling young star, essentially saving the star from spinning itself to death. Evidence for this phenomenon comes from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The movie begins by showing a developing star (red ball). The star is basically a giant ball of gas that is collapsing onto itself. As it shrinks, it spins faster and faster, like a skater folding in his or her arms. The green lines represent magnetic fields. The second half of the animation demonstrates how a disk is thought to keep its star's speed in check. A developing star is shown twirling inside its disk. As it turns, its magnetic fields pass through the disk and get bogged down like a spoon in molasses. This locks the star's rotation to the slower-turning disk, so the star, while continuing to shrink, does not spin faster.

This animation shows the Andromeda galaxy, first as seen in visible light by the National Optical Astronomy Observatory, then as seen in infrared by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The visible-light image highlights the galaxy's population of about one trillion stars. The stars are so crammed into its core that this region blazes with bright starlight. In contrast, the false-colored Spitzer view reveals red waves of dust against a more tranquil sea of blue stars. The dust lanes can be seen twirling all the way into the galaxy's center. This dust is warmed by young stars and shines at infrared wavelengths , which are represented in red. The blue color signifies shorter-wavelength infrared light primarily from older stars.

This artist's animation depicts the explosive death of a massive star, followed by the creation of a disk made up of the star's ashes. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was able to see the warm glow of such a dusty disk using its heat-seeking infrared vision. Astronomers believe planets might form in this dead star's disk, like the mythical Phoenix rising up out of the ashes. The movie begins by showing a dying massive star called a red giant. This bloated star is about 15 times more massive than our sun, and approximately 40 times bigger in diameter. When the star runs out of nuclear fuel, it collapses and ultimately blows apart in what is called a supernova. A lone planet around the star is shown being incinerated by the fiery blast. Astronomers do not know if stars of this heft host planets, but if they do, the planets would probably be destroyed when the stars explode. All that remains of the dead star is its shrunken corpse, called a neutron star. Neutron stars are incredibly dense, with masses nearly one-and-one-half times that of our sun squeezed into bodies roughly 10 miles wide (16 kilometers). They are so dense that their gravity causes light to bend and warp around them. The particular neutron star depicted here, called a pulsar, spins and pulses with X-ray radiation.

This movie compares a visible-light view of the "Cigar galaxy" to an infrared view from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of the same galaxy. The movie begins with the visible image of the galaxy looking cool as a cucumber, then fades into the infrared image, revealing a smokin' hot "cigar." The visible-light picture of the Cigar galaxy, also called Messier 82, shows only a bar of light against a dark patch of space. Longer exposures of the galaxy (not pictured here) have revealed cone-shaped clouds of hot gas above and below the galaxy's plane. It took Spitzer's three sensitive instruments to show that the galaxy is also surrounded by a huge, hidden halo of smoky dust (red in infrared image).

This animation begins with a stunning false-color picture of the supernova remnant Cassiopeia A. It is made up of images taken by three of NASA's Great Observatories, using three different wavebands of light. Infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope are colored red; visible data from the Hubble Space Telescope are yellow; and X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory are green and blue. The movie then pans out to show a Spitzer view of Cassiopeia A (yellow ball) and surrounding clouds of dust (reddish orange). Here, the animation flips back and forth between two Spitzer images taken one year apart. A blast of light from Cassiopeia A is seen waltzing through the dusty skies. Called an "infrared echo," this dance began when the remnant's dead star erupted, or "turned in its grave," about 50 years ago.

This artist's concept of Tempel 1 illustrates the comet's shape, reflectivity, rotation rate and surface temperature, based on information from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Spitzer Space Telescope. Measurements from the Great Observatories indicate that the comet is a matte black object roughly 14 by 4 kilometers (8.7 by 2.5 miles), or about one-half the size of Manhattan. It rotates about once every 41 hours. The sunlit side of the nucleus is glowing warmly, and the nightside is about the temperature of deep space. At the time of these early observations, March 25-27, 2005,Tempel 1 was still far enough away from the Sun that it had not yet developed its characteristic halo of evaporating gas. Hubble and Spitzer observed the comet in visible and infrared light, respectively. The comet appeared only as an unresolved dot due to the great distance, but its general shape, size and color could be deduced from the way the visible and infrared brightness varied over time.

The movie begins with a visible-light picture of the southern region of our Milky Way galaxy then slowly zooms into the area imaged by NASA's Spitzer Space telescope. The dust pillars are fewer and appear dark in the visible-light view because the dust is soaking up visible light. Spitzer's infrared detectors cut through this dust, allowing it to see the heat from warm, embedded star embryos, as well as deeper, more buried pillars. The false-color image taken by Spitzer shows the "South Pillar" region of the star-forming region called the Carina Nebula. Like cracking open a watermelon and finding its seeds, the infrared telescope "busted open" this murky cloud to reveal star embryos (yellow or white) tucked inside finger-like pillars of thick dust (pink). Hot gases are green and foreground stars are blue. Not all of the newfound star embryos can be easily spotted.

This animation starts with an image of a larger but lower resolution image of the Carina Nebula from the Midcourse Space Experiment, which did an infrared survey of the sky while in operation from 1996-97. The image shows the dying star Eta Carinae as the bright spot near the center of the image. As the movie rotates and zooms in, the area that Spitzer studied in detail comes into focus. The "pillars" in the Spitzer image are being sculpted by ultraviolet radiation and stellar winds from the massive star Eta Carinae, a star with more than 100 times the mass of our Sun, and other massive neighboring stars. Spitzer's infrared detectors can see the heat from warm, embedded star embryos, as well as deeper, more buried pillars. This image was taken by the infrared array camera on Spitzer. It is a three-color composite of invisible light, showing emissions from wavelengths of 3.6 microns (blue), 4.5 microns (green), 5.8 microns (orange), and 8.0 microns (red).

This movie shifts from the well-known visible-light picture of Messier 104 taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to infrared views from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Messier 104 is commonly known as the Sombrero galaxy because in visible light, it resembles the broad-brimmed Mexican hat. However, in Spitzer's striking infrared view, the galaxy looks more like a "bull's eye."

This artist's animation illustrates a massive asteroid belt in orbit around a star the same age and size as our Sun. Evidence for this possible belt was discovered by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope when it spotted warm dust around the star, presumably from asteroids smashing together. The view starts from outside the belt, where planets like the one shown here might possibly reside, then moves into to the dusty belt itself. A collision between two asteroids is depicted near the end of the movie. Collisions like this replenish the dust in the asteroid belt, making it detectable to Spitzer.

This artist's animation illustrates what the night sky might look like from a hypothetical alien planet in a star system with an asteroid belt 25 times as massive as the one in our own solar system. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence for such a belt around the nearby star called HD 69830, when its infrared eyes spotted dust, presumably from asteroids banging together. The telescope did not find any evidence for a planet in the system, but astronomers speculate one or more may be present. The movie begins at dusk on the imaginary world, when HD 69830, like our Sun, has begun to set over the horizon. Time is sped up to show the onset of night and the appearance of a brilliant band of light. This light comes from dust in a massive asteroid belt, which scatters sunlight.