Thread: Photos from Deep Space

Ultimate.

These are even better: Fullsize originals... I drew a smiley once, after I zoomed in to the max. I've never seen it since (RIP ).

Awesome!! Thanks for posting those links, O and Bonsay! *saves all the pics*

I was watching a show on the History Channel the other night called Universe. It was truly amazing the things they had on that show. And these pics are indeed mind-blowing!

It's God's abstract art!

Awesome. Man, I've been hearing a lot about that Universe show on TV. Hmmm.

I've been looking for a really good pic like that to use as my desktop. For some odd reason though, there are very few out there that fit my resolution (1200 x 800). Or maybe I'm going crazy.

Originally Posted by Mes Tarrant

Awesome. Man, I've been hearing a lot about that Universe show on TV. Hmmm.

Yeah if you're interested in that kinda stuff, you should definitely check it out. I love astronomy and I was learning LOTS of new things I've never heard of before. Really a great show with great footage and technology to explain difficult concepts. I forget what night that was on... must make a mental note to catch it again. Is it a series? or a one time thing?

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field:


This picture almost made me cry, though you might not find it particularly impressive - get this:

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

It is the deepest image of the universe ever taken in visible light, looking back in time more than 13 billion years. The HUDF contains an estimated 10,000 galaxies.

...the image covers 36.7 square arcminutes. This is smaller than a 1 mm by 1 mm square of paper held 1 meter away, and equal to roughly one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the sky.

Holy. Shit.

In the latest Scientific American they explain that in 2008 will start the new era of physics.
A Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope, (GLAST) will open up part of the electromagnetic spectrum never before explored.

I found a link more about GLAST @ www.nasa.gov/glast

I seem very small.

...the image covers 36.7 square arcminutes. This is smaller than a 1 mm by 1 mm square of paper held 1 meter away, and equal to roughly one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the sky.

I've seen that image before but I never knew that! It's difficult to even comprehend that vastness.

And we're the only intelligent life in the Universe, right? pffft

Awesome pics! I really need to start looking at the pic of the day thing again.

...the image covers 36.7 square arcminutes. This is smaller than a 1 mm by 1 mm square of paper held 1 meter away, and equal to roughly one thirteen-millionth of the total area of the sky.

Jesus. That's insane. Like Burns, I've seen the pic before, but to know it was such a small scope, compared to the overall sky, is just....wow.

This sort of stuff is amazing. Makes you realise that we're very small where everything in space is put into consideration. Suddenly all the problems just seem to disappear.

Originally Posted by NeAvO

This sort of stuff is amazing. Makes you realise that we're very small where everything in space is put into consideration. Suddenly all the problems just seem to disappear.

Yet my looming history essay still haunts me.

Originally Posted by wasup

Yet my looming history essay still haunts me.

History, the study of time, time is infinite!

Originally Posted by NeAvO

This sort of stuff is amazing. Makes you realise that we're very small where everything in space is put into consideration. Suddenly all the problems just seem to disappear.

Tell that to my professors and bosses and such. I may be little, but that doesn't stop people from piling things on me.

Originally Posted by thegnome

This picture almost made me cry, though you might not find it particularly impressive - get this:

Dude, me too. I actually get overwhelmed when I look at this kinda stuff. Here we are on our own little planet while there's hundreds of thousands of galaxies out there floating around, as real as you or me. And it all just gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger. It's beautiful, really. Sometimes I think people don't really understand the beauty of space.

Awesome pictures, thanks guys.

Yep, it's funny how there literally seems to be a limit to our imagination. For example, try to sit down and actually imagine how big the sun is compared to earth. It's pretty much impossible without framing it within some tangible reference (like a golf ball to a basketball or whatever).

I once came across the following information which compares the size of planets and stars - there is a point to which our own sun becomes a mere speck of dust in space (which makes you wonder what a speck of dust on your desk becomes!).

Planets & Stars Order of Magnitude

Order of Magnitude Video

Anyone here ever own a telescope? I had one a while back, it was quite fun despite having to brave the mosquitoes in summer and the cold in winter.

First thing I looked at was the moon, I remember how blinding it was (your supposed to use a light filter when viewing the moon) and how cool it was to see clearly defined mountain ranges. Second thing I looked at was Saturn, now that`s what got me hooked on astronomy... I had seen pictures and stuff before, but I was still completely amazed when I looked into the eyepiece. Suddenly that bright point like "star" transformed itself into a wonderful coloured sphere, surrounded by multiple rings and a healthy system of moons.

Gah, now I wish I lived in the age of space-travel ...

A lot of those really remind me of some fun finds in the Mandelbrot set.

Originally Posted by CoLd BlooDed

there's hundreds of thousands of galaxies out there floating around, as real as you or me.

That's really the key thing.

It's nearly impossible to really get a handle on that sort of vastness being real. Even if you start small - say, the moon.

Have you ever looked up at night and stared at the moon until you really understood that it was a giant rock, as real as the grass below you, that you could walk on if you went far enough?

Further still - something like Mars. An entire planet! Smaller than Earth, but still - an entire planet!! Everything we know, all of our culture, all of our art, all of our games and governments and history - all of this is only from this planet. A whole new planet, and again you could walk on it if you got there. Mountains, valleys, immense plains... It's a real place, a real thing, a giant rock in the sky.

If you work at it like this, by the time you get anywhere near the scale that the hubble picture shows, you will probably be in tears. It's amazing how much effort it takes to really get the enormity to sink in - like Joe said, there's some resistance to the mere idea. It's just too big to fit in our heads all at once. Our instinct is to miniaturize, use representation and not really consider the reality of these massive objects. Hell, there I go again - they're not really objects, we wouldn't call the Earth an 'object'.

One thing that always amazes me about views from deep space is the whole "light year" factor. I mean, some of the things that we can look up in the sky and see with our most powerful telescopes may have actually been destroyed millions of years ago...and yet we would still see them now.

That, alone, is such a crazy concept.

Check it out, you can see the flying spaghetti monster in one.

Originally Posted by Oneironaut

One thing that always amazes me about views from deep space is the whole "light year" factor. I mean, some of the things that we can look up in the sky and see with our most powerful telescopes may have actually been destroyed millions of years ago...and yet we would still see them now.

That, alone, is such a crazy concept.

If the Sun were to suddenly disappear, it would take more than 8 minutes for us to realise anything.



One thing I find cool is our relative motion to other objects...

At the equator, the Earth rotates at 1670 km/h (about 1175 km/h where I live).

Earth rotates around the Sun at just over 107 200 km/h (just under 30 km/s).

Our solar system rotates around the center of the galaxy at about 781 200 km/h (approximately 217 km/s or just over 0,07% of the speed of light). It orbits once every 250 million years.

After that, things get trickier, since there are no universal reference points from which to measure speed. However, the Milky Way is moving anywhere in between 100 and 1000 km/s relative to nearby galaxies.

WHOAAAAA!!!! are those REAL photos. If so, HOLY CRAP!
it looks like paints!