NASA's Image of the Day

[Flyvåpnet]

NASA - The Heart of Darkness
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Image of the Day Gallery

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The Heart of Darkness

Some of the coldest and darkest dust in space shines brightly in this infrared image from the Herschel Observatory, a European Space Agency mission with important participation from NASA. The image is a composite of light captured simultaneously by two of Herschel's three instruments -- the photodetector array camera and spectrometer with its spectral and photometric imaging receiver.

The image reveals a cold and turbulent region where material is just beginning to condense into new stars. It is located in the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, 60 degrees from the center. Blue shows warmer material, red the coolest, while green represents intermediate temperatures. The red filaments are made up of the coldest material pictured here -- material that is slightly warmer than the coldest temperature theoretically attainable in the universe.

Image Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech

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[0235]

its hard to think that that exists with us, and that it is so big and far away

[kryss]

We can't imagine how big that is, we're not used to interstellar distances. Some people think walking an mile is a long way.

[Captn' Red]

What is this blasphemy!
The sun rotates around our earth, and earth is just 6000-8000 years old!

Galaxies? blah! Scientist babble!

[Flyvåpnet]

Yeah, I've never been able to intuitively grasp infinity.  I can do it intellectually, but not (shall we say) emotionally or involuntarily.  Everything in our society and on our planet has borders, boundaries, confines, definitions, limits, names, outlines, shapes, etc.; so conceiving of anything limitless is too big a task for me.  I know it's true, but I just can't fathom it intuitively.

I'd like to say "LOL @ Captn' Red!" but if I did, I'd probably be burned at the stake - or, perhaps more appropriately considering his new moniker, keelhauled or made to walk the plank.  If he's in a good mood, I might be spared and just end up receiving 50 lashes with a cat o' nine tails!

Please click on the image to view its full size.



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[Captn' Red]

Sorry my inner ignorant Christian came out there for a second. ;p

[Kov]

I do love looking at pictures like these just to rmake me remember that we are tiny beings in this massive place.
I've fully grasped the distance of just a mile but I still can't get my head around the distances we have in space. It's pretty crazy.

[Captn' Red]

Yeah we're all tiny insignificant specks of existence.

[Kov]

REVIVAL. Because I needed to share this photo.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap110316.html

If you read the explanation on the site and look at the picture long enough, doesn't it feel like you're in STTGL and the anti-spiral just threw a galaxy at you?