Seeing in Different Ways. The visible and infrared images shown on the front are of the exact same area in the constellation Orion. These images illustrate how features that cannot be seen in visible light show up very brightly in the infrared. Studies of such images give us important information about how stars are born and also on how our own Sun and solar system were formed. The infrared image shows several regions of hot, dense cores within clouds of gas and dust, which scientists believe are newly forming stars.
Stars form from collapsing clouds of gas and dust.
Embedded in these clouds, new stars are difficult to detect in visible light, but heat reveals their presence in the infrared. Infrared observations also have led to the discovery of a large number of stars which are too cool to be detected by their visible light. Building New Planets. Astronomers using data from the Infrared Astronomical Satellite discovered flat disks of dust around about two dozen nearby stars. Building New Stars.