Science
Related: About this forumMy God, this is beautiful!
The was The Astronomy Picture of the Day for yesterday, Nov 18:
mr_hat
(3,410 posts)tavalon
(27,985 posts)It's gorgeous.
SemperEadem
(8,053 posts)who has to bring the party down.
NO DUH IT'S NOT HOW WE'D SEE IT WITH OUR EYES! Gee, Captain Obvious, we never thought of that.
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)Why do you say that? It's a Hubble pic of the visible spectrum, not a composite of xray or ultraviolet or gamma ray images given false color. It's just the light that fell on the Hubble mirror. So if we could get close enough, we would see it with our eyes just like this.
D Gary Grady
(133 posts)The problem isn't our location but our eyes' sensitivity to light. On the next clear night go out and look at the constellation Orion. It's full of glorious nebulae plenty big enough to see with our eyes, but you need at least binoculars or a small telescope to see how glorious they look, not because of magnification but to gather more light. (And to see them in all their glory you really need a time exposure.) Or look at Andromeda on the side toward Pegasus: The great Andromeda Galaxy is five times the width of the full moon, but all we can see with our eyes is a dim impression of the central bulge. For that matter, in most cities the milky way is too dim to see, but go someplace dark with a camera, a tripod, and a wide-angle lens, and shoot a time exposure. Wow! I'm sure the original poster wasn't being a downer, just informative.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)D Gary Grady
(133 posts)But some of us like to celebrate how our knowledge lets us go beyond what would otherwise be our limitations to see all that wondrous beauty. In fact, we're right now building instruments to see even more of nature's grandeur. But hey, George, if you think that's booooring, that's OK!
OffWithTheirHeads
(10,337 posts)AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)They never said anything about seeing it from earth. I mean, I know it's too dim to see with the naked eye from Earth..I'm not that dim.
But if you were in the right place... it would look like this, with your eyes.
D Gary Grady
(133 posts)Extended objects such as nebulae don't look dimmer because they're farther away. There's less total light, but it's concentrated on a smaller area of the retina, and the two effects exactly cancel out. I'll try to find time to post a detailed explanation on my blog (the address is my name with .com on the end and the spaces squeezed out) by tomorrow, in case anybody cares.
From Earth, this nebula (NGC 6357) fills a piece of our sky several times as large as the full moon. There are other nebulae even larger from our point of view, and I've long lamented that we don't have lemur eyes to better appreciate them. This photograph is beautiful because it's a time exposure captured with a large-objective telescope; our scientific instruments extend our ability to appreciate nature's glorious beauty, and I don't see how that's a downer for anybody!
a fellow astronomy fan. Welcome to DU!
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Many years ago I spent not enough evenings with Carl Sagan and a few others hangin' in a Japanese Restaurant in Ithaca.. just listening.. listening... what a joy that was.
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)pangaia
I evy you to have had the possibility to be together with Carl Sagan.. He was a great astronomer - and a man who also could explain some of the mysteries of the stars - to a 8 year old child with a fascination for the stars... I also saw the Cosmos series who I had to beg and beg to be allowed to se - as I was just 8 and the series was aired late, often on a school night... My fasination for all things in the universe I belive started with Cosmos (the book) and the series - and even though Im little less interesting in the stars today than I was when I was 8 - Im still interested in the stars - and I for one envy the ones who in the future wil be able to travel to the stars - and look at the all for themself... We are just standing at the shores - and looking out of the universe, wondering what is out there - to paraphrase Carl Sagan...
It just must have been a joy to be able to listen to that man for hours at the time.. I hope he was a interesting man to listen to...
Diclotican
pangaia
(24,324 posts)Also a little at Cornell.
I was friends with the owner and family of the restaurant and hung out there a lot in the evenings..washed rice, dishes to help out sometimes, learning to cook Japanese cuisine, make sushi, baby---sat his kids, and drank a LOT of sake !
Sometimes Carl would come in for dinner, and he, the owner, other friends and I would just hang until the wee hours and close the place...usually when the owner was under the table.
Yes, Sagan was a special person...I was really lucky..
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)pangaia
Interesting.. Both that you helped out a little - was drinking a lot of sake .. And sometimes you even got Carl Sagan into the restaurant for some dinner - and that it was no set closing hours - so you could just sit there and hang out to the wee hours now and then...
Yeah - it is often time to close when the owner was under the table - the show is often closed when that happened .. But often you can have a lot of fun in the meantime..
You was lucky - he was one of the persons I would just have loved to get to know - if just for a little while talking to him.. He was one of my "heroes" when I was little - and I think I was reading most of his books - when kids my own age still was reading everything else than that stuff... Yeah I know I was, and maybe still is little nerdy
Diocletian
bigtree
(85,996 posts)thanks for the info. Make the pic even more interesting, imo.
loudsue
(14,087 posts)And WELCOME to DU!
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)GiveMeFreedom
(976 posts)I see the photo just fine. Thank god. If I had to use my imagination, to visualize in my mind's eye, what astronomers try to explain to lay man, my universe would look like the inside of my closet, dark and small.
Bradical79
(4,490 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)CrazyOrangeCat
(6,112 posts)TheDebbieDee
(11,119 posts)WinstonSmith4740
(3,056 posts)sakabatou
(42,152 posts)Sekhmets Daughter
(7,515 posts)the picture and the link!
What more can I say?
spinbaby
(15,090 posts)Makes a person realize just how small and insignificant we are, floating along on our little speck in the cosmos.
Kablooie
(18,634 posts)renate
(13,776 posts)They are many light-years across--isn't that amazing? They aren't just solar-system sized--they are immense. Wouldn't it be amazing to see them from the inside?
AlbertCat
(17,505 posts)And many light-years AWAY.
This is the way it looked 8150 years ago.
That is almost..it is.. unimaginable...!!
snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)jeff47
(26,549 posts)snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)CoboWowbo
(32 posts)I can see my home planet!
valerief
(53,235 posts)allan01
(1,950 posts)pipewrench
(194 posts)Desktop background +1
Flying Squirrel
(3,041 posts)When you realize it's about to have you for dinner.
Surya Gayatri
(15,445 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)It wasn't my fault! My buddy Xantac distracted me. He was telling me how our other friend Prilosec did this stupid thing and it was really funny and I got to laughing so hard I had a seizure or something. Honest, Dad-unit.
Anyway, it made this really pretty nebula. . . .
Javaman
(62,530 posts)not really all that surprising.
demwing
(16,916 posts)Last edited Tue Nov 20, 2012, 10:25 AM - Edit history (1)
if you prefer to see the universe as benevolent
Javaman
(62,530 posts)there is no up or down in space.
demwing
(16,916 posts)and straight on till morning
Mustellus
(328 posts)A newly formed batch of blue-white super giants begins to evaporate the cloud they formed in. The shock waves from their explosions as supernovas after their brief lifetimes will compress the cloud and cause the formation of lower mass, sun-like stars. At the bottom, a lone super giant ( O class star, probably ) has begun its own hole... The small dark knots may be near the critical density to begin collapse to form another solar system....
pangaia
(24,324 posts)WCGreen
(45,558 posts)sometimes a nebulae is just a nebulae
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,123 posts)I can't not see it now.
mattvermont
(646 posts)SleeplessinSoCal
(9,123 posts)[IMG][/IMG]
Tigress DEM
(7,887 posts)When I looked really close it seems the upper left kneeling figure is sacrificing a pig. I know it's late and my eyes are goofy, but clouds always seem to have interesting details to me.
luvspeas
(1,883 posts)FlaGranny
(8,361 posts)could be flying over a pig - or maybe it's the moon.
JHB
(37,160 posts)Maybe the smog monster?
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)It'll be all over the internet by morning!
SleeplessinSoCal
(9,123 posts)earthbot1
(77 posts)So strange. So much!
haikugal
(6,476 posts)What a beautiful picture. Does anyone know if it's possible to get a poster of a picture like this? Thanks for posting this for us...it's glorious and thought provoking.
D Gary Grady
(133 posts)You'll find plenty of them. Also check out the ads in magazines like Sky&Telescope, where you can also see remarkably beautiful photos shot by amateurs. If you have a camera that lets you shoot time exposures, you can capture some remarkable night sky images yourself, especially if you go somewhere dark. The Sky&Telescope website is http://sky.com.
burrowowl
(17,641 posts)And what does Marco Rubio unthink!?
Asshole! He should read Teillard de Chardin!
xfundy
(5,105 posts)Or is it that kid from the Hobbit? In the Ice Storm, too, I can't recall his name.
And, not to put too fine a point on it (unintentional entendre), the rock point looks uncut.
Here's what I found mind blowing, several years ago-- if you get a pic of your inner eye from an optometrist, it really does look just like pics from space.
Evidence for god? Dunno.
Evidence for structure in our world, I would guess.
But I'm no scientist, man.
demwing
(16,916 posts)1620rock
(2,218 posts)nenagh
(1,925 posts)Cha
(297,275 posts)in our Universe..thank you, LongTomH!
DreamGypsy
(2,252 posts)sigmasix
(794 posts)I cant help but hear the "Universe Song" by Monty Python in my head every time I see one of these stunning pictures of the cosmos.
"Can we have your liver then?"
LongTomH
(8,636 posts)pangaia
(24,324 posts)but of course it doesn't fit. :>
I checked out the Hubble site. WOW!
Thank so much for your post....
DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)chknltl
(10,558 posts)Dust allergies.
calimary
(81,298 posts)NGC 6357: Cathedral to Massive Stars. Just blows the mind. THANK YOU for posting this, LongTomH! Shared on Facebook!
Heathen57
(573 posts)my newest Background for this laptop. Such beauty in deep space. If this was the only thing to come from NASA and all of the telescopes, it would be worth it to me.
Jasana
(490 posts)Thank you for posting that beautiful picture. I emailed it to some friends and now have the website bookmarked as a favorite. I wish I knew it had had existed before.
AsahinaKimi
(20,776 posts)WheelWalker
(8,955 posts)Celestial navigation. What a wonder.
Beartracks
(12,814 posts)... Oh my God. It's full of stars.
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Doc Holliday
(719 posts)various interpretations of this phenomenon by the readers here, perhaps it should be renamed the "Rorschach Nebula."
Awesome pic.
nikto
(3,284 posts)Does Jesus know about this?
Diclotican
(5,095 posts)LongTomH
The Universe I full of this wonders - who we for the time being is not able to travel to look up close up and personal... And this is just beautifully for sure.. Thank you for your picture.
Diclotican
cantbeserious
(13,039 posts)eom