The Two Micron All Sky Survey at IPAC
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The view of the sky as seen by 2MASS is generally quite different from the one we typically get visually, using optical telescopes and detectors. This is because at near-infrared wavelengths 2MASS is more sensitive to different kinds of stars, generally cooler, redder ones, than optical telescopes, and also 2MASS can peer through much of the obscuring dust that fills the plane of the Milky Way, allowing us to see more stars, deeper into our Galaxy. 2MASS is less sensitive to the glowing emission from the bright hydrogen nebulae, and more sensitive to the bright starlight scattered from the dust in these regions.
Below are some examples of some familiar celestial objects, showing the contrast between the optical view (left) and the 2MASS view (right). The images in the two wavelength regimes are shown to approximately the same dimension and scale.
The optical images below are links to the wonderful collection of wide-field astronomical photographs, mostly made with the telescopes of the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO) by David Malin, unless otherwise noted.
| The Galactic Center | |
| Optical | 2MASS |
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| The Orion Nebula (Messier 42 and 43) | |
| Optical | 2MASS |
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| The Carina Nebula | |
| Optical | 2MASS |
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| The Omega Nebula (M17) | |
| Optical | 2MASS |
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| The Hourglass Nebula in the Lagoon (Messier 8) | |
| Optical | 2MASS |
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More to be added soon, so please check this page again in the near future!
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