Bright Lights

Two extremely bright stars illuminate a greenish mist in this image
from the Spitzer Space Telescope's "GLIMPSE360" survey. This mist is
comprised of hydrogen and carbon compounds called polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons (PAHs), which also are found here on Earth in sooty
vehicle
exhaust and on charred grills. In space, PAHs form in the dark clouds
that give rise to stars. These molecules provide astronomers a way to
visualize the peripheries of gas clouds and study their structures in
great detail. They are not actually green; but are color coded in these
images to allow scientists see their glow in infrared. This image is a
combination of data from Spitzer and the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey
(2MASS). The Spitzer data was taken after Spitzer's liquid coolant ran
dry in
May 2009, marking the beginning of its "warm" mission. Image Credit:
NASA/JPL-Caltech/2MASS/SSI/