Hubble's Greatest Hits: Astronomers discuss their favorite images
Earlier this year, NPR ran a neat narrated slideshow of astronomers discussing their favorite images of space taken through the Hubble Telescope. It's worth a second look, now that the device is back in action, following a final round of repairs. Above, holy wow, right? This image was one of the earlier images retreived after Hubble launched nearly 20 years ago. Astronomer Tod Lauer of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson explains that it's a Hubble Space Telescope image of part of the Eagle Nebula, a giant cloud of gas and dust about six thousand light years from earth. These pillars are areas of strong concentrations of gas and dust, in which stars are eroded away, like sandcastles on a beach are blown away by waves. Inside this cloud, new stars are being formed. Hubble's Prying Eyes (NPR News, via Jesse Dylan)
And, with that prelude out of the way -- go have a look at the new images NASA released today from the now-upgraded Hubble Telescope. Below, "Butterfly Emerges from Stellar Demise in Planetary Nebula NGC 6302."
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I am constantly amazed by the pictures taken from the Hubble.. and well other instruments that poke their beady eye into the space around us.
They capture some sort of fractal beauty that you can't really describe.
To repeat something once said in a film, "They should of sent a poet"
Hmm, interesting, those pretty pictures are from 6000 light years away. Let me do the math. 6000 light years away implies the light left them at around the time that God created the Heaven and the Earth (as we know from the Bible, which is infallible in all its reporting). Thus, these pretty pictures are of what that part of creation looked like very soon after God created it. It's beautiful, which is what things would be if they were "good" (as God said they were in the Bible). It's yet more proof that the Bible is right, and far more authoritative than, say, Wikipedia.
Amazing pictures! Makes me think of Psalm 19: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
No discussion of beautiful Hubble pictures of nebulae would be complete without mention of ...
The Goatse Nebula
Thus, these pretty pictures are of what that part of creation looked like very soon after God created it.
Nah. It was done on a sound stage. The corner is blacked out so you can't see the stagehands.
Is that they same one that they did the moon landings on?
#3 on the NPR site (Light Echo) - that's my dad speaking! Among other excellent things he wrote the user manual for the new Wide Field Camera 3 on the Hubble.
Looks like Kubrick made a really good guess with his slit-scanner.
We are all keeping in mind that these images are colorized, right? The color is just, you know, for fun and stuff.
Once you see the dog in the Eagle Nebula (the one looking up with his front paws on the big rock) you can't unsee it. Muahahah!
@POLISHQ, neat!
It's pretty hard to beat the sombrero galaxy:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/0601/sombrero_hst_big.jpg
I can see the noodles.
@#9......you're joking right?
I'd like to see some new images compared to ones of the same objects that the Hubble took a few years ago. Just to see the improved level of detail. Any changes in shape would be a bonus.
Space photos are almost always highly color enhanced.
Well if there is life out there, at least this can give us comfort that some day in the distant future perhaps we can compare photos and see how our Solar System was formed. I just hope we aren't the only ones taking pictures... =^P
Compare this picture from the Very Large Telescope, taken just after its first 8.2 meter scope was finished:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap980602.html
No comparison from the ground. (NGC 6302 is about 3400 light-years away. It was first seen no later then 1888.)