NASA Space Telescope Gives Scientists Depth Perception

Astronomers now have a new "eye" for determining the distance to certain mysterious bodies in and around our Milky Way galaxy. By taking advantage of the unique position of NASA's Spitzer's Space Telescope millions of miles from Earth, and a depth-perceiving trick called parallax, they were able to pin down the most probable location of one such object. The findings will ultimately help astronomers better understand the different components of our galaxy.

This great distance gives astronomers a great advantage. They can use Spitzer in the same way that a human brain uses two eyes to tell how far away objects are, a principle called parallax. With two eyes, we have two perspectives, which our brains combine to give us depth perception. In space, Spitzer acts as one eye, while a ground-based telescope acts as the other. With two very wide cosmic eyes, astronomers can determine the location of bodies within and just outside our galaxy.

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