During the infancy of our solar system, when our planets had not yet settled down into their orbits, this was a dangerous place to live. The planets wobbled and jostled around left over asteroids, comets and other debris floating in between their orbits, causing frequent collisions throughout our solar system.

Audio Podcasts

Unsettled Youth: A Chaotic Planetary System

Something appears to be pushing around a large clump of material that is in orbit of this star, and it's moving fast enough to make a difference in observations along a five month period.

Swirling Clumps of Planetary Material

From recent discoveries made by two of NASA's Great Observatories comes new insight into how stars are created. Large nebula's scattered all around our galaxy, act as incubators for newborn stars to ignite and grow.

Trigger Happy Star Formation

At the center of our Milky Way galaxy is an area previously unseen by astronomers. Shrouded by clouds of swirling dusts and gases, before now our astronomers could only guess at what might lie behind this thick veil.

Baby Stars Found Jumbled In Galactic Center

It's life, Jim, but not as we know it! Well, at least the building blocks of life. A new study from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope hints that planets around stars cooler than our sun might possess a different mix of potentially life-forming chemicals.

Cool Stars Have Different Mix of Life-Forming Chemicals

Talk about hot flashes! A planet that heats up to extreme temperatures in a matter of hours before quickly cooling back down.

Exoplanet with Wild Temperature Swings

The new record-holder for dimmest known star-like object in the universe goes to twin brown dwarfs, each of which shines feebly with only one millionth the light of our sun.

Dim Dwarfs

The star Epsilon Eridani is even stranger than fiction. NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has shown it has two asteroid belts.

Twin Asteroid Belts

Water is being blasted to pieces by a young star's laser-like jets, according to new observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The discovery provides a better understanding of how water -- an essential ingredient for life as we know it -- is processed in emerging solar systems.

Water Hit with Young Star's Best Shot

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope continues to surprise astronomers. On its fifth anniversary, we recap some of this Great Observatory's biggest discoveries.

Spitzer's Fifth Anniversary

A contender for the title of brightest star in our Milky Way galaxy has been unearthed in the dusty metropolis of the galaxy's center.

Brightest Star in the Galaxy has New Competition

As a result of a new Spitzer Space Telescope study, two of our own Milky Way Galaxy's spiral arms have gone away.

Missing Spiral Arms

Spitzer isn't the only infrared mission. Infrared images from another of NASA's robotic missions help us understand mysterious features on the surface of Mars.

Holes on Mars

Diamonds may be rare on Earth, but surprisingly common in space -- and new research shows that the infrared eyes of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope are perfect for finding them.

Diamondoids in Space

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope is a space-based infrared observatory, part of NASA's Great Observatories program (which also includes Hubble, Chandra, and Compton). These podcasts offer information about the science discoveries, astronomy, and more.

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