Our Milky Way is a dusty place. Thanks to NASA Spitzer Space Telescope's excellent resolution, the dusty features within the galactic centre are seen in unprecedented detail.
This image shows the star-studded centre of the Milky Way towards the constellation of Sagittarius.
Festive nebulas light up the Milky Way galaxy satellite.
Our Milky Way galaxy and its small companions are surrounded by a giant halo of million-degree gas.
This infrared image from the NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer shows exceptionally cold, dense cloud cores seen in silhouette against the bright diffuse infrared glow of the plane of the Milky Way galaxy.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way. It is located about 25 000 light-years from Earth.
One of the most prolific birthing grounds in our Milky Way galaxy, a nebula called RCW 49, is exposed in superb detail for the first time in this new image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
This image shows a composite view of the Crab nebula, an iconic supernova remnant in our Milky Way galaxy, as viewed by the Herschel Space Observatory and the Hubble Space Telescope.
The large bubble is an embryonic star that looks set to turn into one of the brightest stars in our Milky Way galaxy in this infrared image from the Herschel Space Telescope.
NASA Spitzer Space Telescope sees RCW 79 in the southern Milky Way, 17,200 light-years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus.