[2Wycked]

Story here:

Quote:

The largest NASA Hubble Space Telescope image ever assembled, this sweeping bird’s-eye view of a portion of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) is the sharpest large composite image ever taken of our galactic next-door neighbor. Though the galaxy is over 2 million light-years away, The Hubble Space Telescope is powerful enough to resolve individual stars in a 61,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy’s pancake-shaped disk. It's like photographing a beach and resolving individual grains of sand. And there are lots of stars in this sweeping view -- over 100 million, with some of them in thousands of star clusters seen embedded in the disk.

This ambitious photographic cartography of the Andromeda galaxy represents a new benchmark for precision studies of large spiral galaxies that dominate the universe's population of over 100 billion galaxies. Never before have astronomers been able to see individual stars inside an external spiral galaxy over such a large contiguous area. Most of the stars in the universe live inside such majestic star cities, and this is the first data that reveal populations of stars in context to their home galaxy.

Hubble traces densely packed stars extending from the innermost hub of the galaxy seen at the left. Moving out from this central galactic bulge, the panorama sweeps from the galaxy's central bulge across lanes of stars and dust to the sparser outer disk. Large groups of young blue stars indicate the locations of star clusters and star-forming regions. The stars bunch up in the blue ring-like feature toward the right side of the image. The dark silhouettes trace out complex dust structures. Underlying the entire galaxy is a smooth distribution of cooler red stars that trace Andromeda’s evolution over billions of years.

Because the galaxy is only 2.5 million light-years from Earth, it is a much bigger target in the sky than the myriad galaxies Hubble routinely photographs that are billions of light-years away. This means that the Hubble survey is assembled together into a mosaic image using 7,398 exposures taken over 411 individual pointings.

The panorama is the product of the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury (PHAT) program. Images were obtained from viewing the galaxy in near-ultraviolet, visible, and near-infrared wavelengths, using the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard Hubble. This cropped view shows a 48,000-light-year-long stretch of the galaxy in its natural visible-light color, as photographed with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in red and blue filters.
The panorama is being presented at the 225th Meeting of the Astronomical Society in Seattle, Washington.

NASA is exploring our solar system and beyond to understand the universe and our place in it. We seek to unravel the secrets of our universe, its origins and evolution, and search for life among the stars. Today’s announcement shares the discovery of our ever-changing cosmos, and brings us closer to learning whether we are alone in the universe.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington.
For images and more information about Hubble, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/hubble or http://hubblesite.org/news/2015/02

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.

Here is an awe-inspiring Youtube video of the pictures:

I've always been a fan of funding space travel/exploration/X, so I find stuff like this utterly fascinating.

[Glaucon]

Dope!

[Paracelsus]

j/k; this is gorgeous stuff.

[Saweeep]

The term mind-blowing is used too often and too liberally.

It should be reserved for images like this.

There's something about contemplating the scale of the universe that overcomes me with an overwhelming feeling of my mortality.

[Samseau]

(01-19-2015 03:21 AM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  

The term mind-blowing is used too often and too liberally.

It should be reserved for images like this.

There's something about contemplating the scale of the universe that overcomes me with an overwhelming feeling of my mortality.

Yep, we'll never see it all, even though we desperately want to.

[RawGod]

Contemplating the size of the universe is definitely akin to a religious experience. I remember once when I was a teenager, falling asleep and either meditating or dreaming that I was floating out near the planet Jupiter. I experienced a tangible sense of the size of it which staggered and awed me in the strongest, indescribable way. Something about it is profoundly comforting as well as frightening, although I don't quite know why.

Also, see this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...PEG%29.jpg

[UroboricForms]

I've been fascinated by this stuff for as long as I can remember. My first time looking at Saturn through a telescope was big moment for me spiritually. Planets are one things, though....galaxies are another thing entirely. I mean can you even imagine seeing something like this (or a quasar, neutron star, a black hole in action, any other intense cosmic phenomena) up close and for real? Would your mind even be able to comprehend it or would you just crack up?

[Daedmo]

2015 is going to be a big year for space exploration!

The New Horizons spacecraft will fly past the dwarf planet Pluto in a few months and will undoubtedly send back some pretty mind blowing images. I remember watching the launch 9 years ago live on NASA TV. Seems like it was only yesterday...

[Quintus Curtius]

It's nice to see a positive-themed thread.

Thanks, Wickulus.

[Old Fritz]

(01-19-2015 03:11 AM)2Wycked Wrote:  

It's so beautiful. This kind of stuff is exactly what I am getting involved in Space.

[Yatagan]

(01-19-2015 08:52 AM)Daedmo Wrote:  

2015 is going to be a big year for space exploration!

The New Horizons spacecraft will fly past the dwarf planet Pluto in a few months and will undoubtedly send back some pretty mind blowing images. I remember watching the launch 9 years ago live on NASA TV. Seems like it was only yesterday...

There's also the "Dawn" probe which will give us the first ever closeup of the dwarf planet Ceres in the Asteroid belt this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft)

[Old Fritz]

(01-19-2015 11:37 AM)Seboist Wrote:  

(01-19-2015 08:52 AM)Daedmo Wrote:  

2015 is going to be a big year for space exploration!

The New Horizons spacecraft will fly past the dwarf planet Pluto in a few months and will undoubtedly send back some pretty mind blowing images. I remember watching the launch 9 years ago live on NASA TV. Seems like it was only yesterday...

There's also the "Dawn" probe which will give us the first ever closeup of the dwarf planet Ceres in the Asteroid belt this year.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_(spacecraft)

It's amazing to think about the kind of research and missioins that will be accomplished over the next few decades. Especially since we have more countries getting involved in space; in addition to the private sector. Gets me excited!

[MMX2010]

Relevant to contemplating the scale of the universe.

[game_ethic]

[catoblepa]

don't worry, we're gonna manage interstellar space travel as soon as we figure out how to retro-engineer the zeta reticulian technology we retrieved after the Roswell crash.

[Handsome Creepy Eel]

Relevant:

The Onion Wrote:

Mars Maven Begins Mission To Take Thousands Of High-Resolution Desktop Backgrounds


WASHINGTON—Confirming that the probe successfully entered orbit around Mars late Sunday night, NASA officials reported today that the Maven spacecraft was now set to begin its mission of taking thousands of high-resolution computer backgrounds. “In its first year alone, the Maven probe will capture several hundred crisp desktop wallpapers of the Martian landscape in previously unattainable detail,” said NASA scientist Bruce Jakosky, noting that the space probe’s sophisticated instruments would ensure the backgrounds were in resolutions up to 1920x1200 and large enough to span two side-by-side monitors. “Maven has already taken preliminary images of the Bonneville crater, and we can confirm they look absolutely beautiful under a grid of desktop icons or protruding from the edges of a browser window.” According to Jakosky, after collecting enough computer backgrounds, researchers hoped to extend Maven’s mission and begin capturing images for a comprehensive Mars screensaver before the probe exhausts its fuel and crashes into the Martian surface.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/mars-ma...hig,36987/

[VolandoVengoVolandoVoy]

You pigs are ignoring the real issue here - is Ray Villard wearing a shirt that I find offensive?
If so, the man needs to be publicly excoriated and fired.
Science and contributions to the human race be damned.

[bojangles]

I love this thread, glad it's not derailed by someone being offended by a t-shirt. Looking forward to the New Horizons mission

[Only One Man]

THIS is the kind of stuff I want my tax dollars going to.

[PeruLover12]

Watching the first video posted of the new NASSA photograph of Andromeda moved me emotionally I'm surprised to say. Our little blue and green planet spinning endlessly in the vastness of our galaxy and beyond our galaxy in Andromeda or further how many other planets like ours? They say that due to air travel the world has gotten smaller but I suppose thanks to HUBBLE the universe has gotten bigger. It's a shame that our little miracle planet is being fucked up by fanatics and environment destruction. How can you see a video like that and not love the planet we live on and the people we share it with?

Three score years and ten is all the time we get here. Make the most of your lives on it.

[Slim Shady]

There has been a lot of real scientific evidence coming through satellites etc for the revolutionary theories of modern physics that started in the early 20th century. A lot of these mind melting theories, and completely new way of looking at the cosmos and the world immediately around us are being given raw data support which we at one point thought impossible. If these men were still alive today, they might weep.

Lots of exciting stuff happening in Physics.

[Redwood]

I shed a tear, brother. It's beautiful.

[Brodiaga]

(01-19-2015 03:42 AM)RawGod Wrote:  

Contemplating the size of the universe is definitely akin to a religious experience. I remember once when I was a teenager, falling asleep and either meditating or dreaming that I was floating out near the planet Jupiter. I experienced a tangible sense of the size of it which staggered and awed me in the strongest, indescribable way. Something about it is profoundly comforting as well as frightening, although I don't quite know why.

Also, see this: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/co...PEG%29.jpg

The more I zoom out, the more I realize that there must be somebody else alive out there in the Universe except us on Planet Earth.

[Slim Shady]

Statistically one argument says that there MUST be another planet with life in the universe. Since WE exist, and since there are so many uncountable star systems, and there fore planets, the odds are there must be another one like us.

Another statistical argument however suggests that the percentage of planets in universe with life is ZERO. How you ask [since we actually exist on earth]?
Because 1/[a number approaching infinity] is 0. Thus statistically, the probability of a planet in the known universe having life is ZERO. Extrapolating from that we theorize that the probability of finding life on an as yet undiscovered planet is also zero.

Funny stuff you can do with math.

[Truth Teller]

The question "are we alone?" is a very, very interesting one. I think it's possible that we are alone, actually.

If you read Simon Conway Morris' Life's Solution, he argues that if life exists somewhere else in the universe, it probably looks a lot like us. While non-carbon biochemistry is theoretically possible, it seems far more likely that carbon based biochemistry is the only type. Also, if you read Tipler and Barrow's 1986 The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (very dense and very technical), they discuss the probability of extraterrestrial life and find it ridiculously small.