Yahoo! News - New Infrared Telescope Lifts Universe's Dusty Veil



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new space telescope that looks at the cosmos with infrared detectors has lifted the dust veils from newborn stars and a bumptious comet, and revealed the detail in the spiral arms of a neighboring galaxy.

One of the new telescope's first images shows a favorite of astronomers, the nearby galaxy Messier 81, located in the constellation Ursa Major (Great Bear), which includes the Big Dipper.

Messier 81 is about 12 million light-years from Earth -- a stone's throw in cosmic terms. A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year.