NASA's Spitzer, Hubble and Chandra space observatories teamed up to create this multi-wavelength, false-colored view of the M82 "Cigar Galaxy." X-ray data from Chandra appears in blue; infrared light recorded by Spitzer appears in red; Hubble's observations of hydrogen emission appear in orange.

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Other articles by Eric Schwartz:

Cassini's radar pulls aside Titan's atmospheric shroudCO2 shape shifts and moves about on mysterious IapetusCassini mission nearly at its endExtragalactic astronomers immerse themselves inside 'violent physics' Galaxies far more prolific in hinterlands of universe UA sheds light on bacterial infections NASA/Space Grant interns celebrate accomplishments Teacher hopes science spark grows into a fire in the belly 2-century math problem no match for Tucsonans Low voltage helps increase chemical yields

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At a certain scale, the human mind falters.

Trying to imagine the scope of the distance from Earth to Mars, the power emitted by the sun every second or the history of life on this planet boggles the mind.

But even these majestic sums pale to nothing in the spans of time and space and energy contemplated by extragalactic astronomers.

These hardy explorers of the farthest and most inaccessible reaches of the universe can use just a few photons to describe some of the largest and most complex phenomena in existence.

They paint billion-year-old light into pictures of a universe, violent and beautiful, dynamic and exciting. Their equations count objects it would take light-years to cross, and objects with no measurable size at all that warp the very shape of space.

Many exciting discoveries are being made today about these untouchable yet vastly powerful objects, including many right here in Tucson.

With the Kuiper Telescope on Mount Bigelow, the component of the Very Long Baseline Array radio telescope and other telescopes atop Kitt Peak, and more than a dozen other telescopes in the area, Tucson contributes an important share of work in extragalactic research, including two new papers published last week.