These pages chronicle the work and ruminations of Carolyn Collins Petersen, also known as TheSpacewriter.

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I am CEO of Loch Ness Productions. I am also a producer for Astrocast.TV, an online magazine about astronomy and space science.

For the past few years, I've also been a voice actor, appearing in a variety of productions. You can see and hear samples of my work by clicking on the "Voice-Overs, Videos and 'Casts tab.

My blog, TheSpacewriter's Ramblings, is about astronomy, space science, and other sciences.

Ideas and opinions expressed here do not represent those of my employer or of any other organization to which I am affiliated. They're mine.

Visit my main site at: TheSpacewriter.com.

**Comments are welcome; I do moderate them to weed out spam.

Contact me for writing and voice-over projects at: cc(dot)petersen(at)gmail(dot)com

I Twitter as Spacewriter

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Put on Your Infrared Glasses

December 6, 2005 at 8:52 am | Leave a Comment

Andromeda Galaxy, Courtesy National Optical Astronomy Observatory

There IS more to the universe than meets the unaided eye. That’s the story I told in one of my planetarium shows, “More Than Meets the Eye” and I’m stickin’ to it. Here’s why: each time you shift wavelength “regimes” and look at the sky, you learn more about what makes objects tick. Take the Andromeda Galaxy for example (since it’s high overhead in northern hemisphere skies these early winter evenings).

This is the typical picture we see of Andromeda. Beautiful, and since it’s the closest spiral galaxy to us, a great example of the general structure of spirals. However, if you look at Andromeda in the infrared, the image changes dramatically.

Spitzer view of Andromeda (infrared)

Suddenly the spiral rings pop into view much more clearly. The dust regions are glowing, and where there’s warmed dust, there’s action going on. In this case, the action comes from hot stars (and other hot events) warming up the surrounding clouds of dust.

Another Spitzer view of Andromeda

You can read more technical detail about this astonishing “infrared makeover” of Andromeda Galaxy at the Spitzer Newsroom, but for now, just compare and contrast the visible-light image with the two infrared images of our nearest spiral neighbor. Lovely, isn’t it?

This blog a wholly pwnd subsidiary of Carolyn Collins Petersen, a.k.a. TheSpacewriter.
Copyright 2008, Carolyn Collins Petersen
Inama Nushif!
Image of Horsehead Nebula: T.A.Rector (NOAO/AURA/NSF) and Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)

“It is by Coffee alone I set my day in motion. It is by the juice of bean that coffee acquires depth, the tongue acquires taste, the taste awakens the body. It is by Coffee alone I set my day in motion.”

TheSpacewriter

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Put on Your Infrared Glasses