IRAS Infrared Images of Messier Objects

The Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS), a joint project of Nasa with the Netherlands' space agency, was launched January 26, 1983, with a Delta 3910 rocket from the Western Space Missile Range (WSMR), Vandenberg, California. Among its pioneering infrared images of many celestial objects were some of the earliest IR images of prominent Messier objects:

M31: M31 IRAS images
Orion Cloud IRAS IR image of constellation Orion

More IRAS images can be found in IPAC's IRAS Gallery.

More on the IRAS satellite:

IRAS discoveries (IPAC, Caltech)
IRAS stuff from the NSSDC database
Comet C/1983 H1 (1983d) Iras-Araki-Alcock was discovered by IRAS and approached Earth as close as 4.7 million km on May 11, 1983

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
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Last Modification: July 6, 1999