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New Infrared View from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer Reveals Hidden Galaxy, IC 342
JPL Science Highlight: Planetary Program Support
Research by Edward Wright, WISE Principal Investigator; UCLA; Amy Mainzer, WISE Deputy Project Scientist; NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Science Writer, Samantha Harvey, Samantha.K.Harvey@jpl.nasa.gov
April 2010:NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) reveals a hidden galaxy, called IC 342. Shrouded behind our own galaxy, the Milky Way, stargazers and professional astronomers have a hard time seeing the galaxy through the Milky Way's bright band of stars, dust and gas. WISE's infrared vision cuts through this veil, offering a crisp view.
Significance to Solar System Exploration
This galaxy has been of great interest to astronomers because it is relatively close. However, determining its distance from Earth has proven difficult due to the intervening Milky Way. Astronomer Edwin Hubble first thought the galaxy might belong to our own Local Group of galaxies, but current estimates now place it farther away, at about 6.6 to 11 million light-years.
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Last Updated: 24 January 2011
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