Spitzer or Warhol?
If Andy Warhol had been an astronomer, this would almost certainly be a piece
of his work. This image is reminiscent of his famous silkscreen grids of the same
image repeated in different colours, but the space-borne artist on this occasionis
the Spitzer Space Telescope – and it has 'painted' the Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) in a
variety of different wavelengths.
The pair of waltzing galaxies that comprise M51 are shown in visible light, blue
and green visible light wavelengths and infrared at 3.6 microns. Meanwhile, the
bottom right-hand image shows the Whirlpool Galaxy in infrared at 24 microns. © NASA/JPL-Caltech