Three views of the infrared universe by the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite.In the view of the full sky (top), radiation represented by the S-shaped blue area is emitted by dust in the solar system. When that light is removed (middle), light from dust in the Milky Way (the band at the centre) and Magellanic Clouds (lower right) remains. A uniform field of cosmic infrared background radiation is revealed when the galactic light is removed (bottom); the dark line at the centre is an artifact of the filtering process.