360-Degree View of the Milky Way

This video shows a continually-looping infrared view of our Milky Way galaxy, as seen by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.The icon in the lower right corner shows how the view changes over time, from our position in the Milky Way.

The mosaic comes primarily from the GLIMPSE360 project, which stands for Galactic Legacy Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire. It consists of more than 2 million snapshots taken in infrared light over ten years, beginning in 2003 when Spitzer launched.The GLIMPSE360 map will guide astronomers for generations, helping them to further chart the unexplored territories of our own Milky Way. Credit: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory