Comments on: Hubble Heritage’s diamond gift

By: Betr Paris Hilton 4 Prez

Betr Paris Hilton 4 Prez — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:57:22 +0000

Michael said on October 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 am :

“Wait a second! Isn’t this McCain’s silhouette in the last picture? What the…!”

Yeck! EEEEUUUGH!! Ewww.

Oh yegods I hope not!

If there’s one thing, I *don’t* want to see in the stars – or anywhere else – its that ugly old man. Its clear that you’re watching wa-aay too much political news.

But couldn’t you at least see Barack Obama in it given its a star birth region?

Eww .. bleck! You’re starting to give paradoila (or whateveuh) a bad name ..

By: Betr Paris Hilton 4 Prez

Betr Paris Hilton 4 Prez — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:56:36 +0000

Michael said on October 3rd, 2008 at 6:00 am :

“Wait a second! Isn’t this McCain’s silhouette in the last picture? What the…!”

Yeck! EEEEUUUGH!! Ewww.

Oh yegods I hope not!

If there’s one thing, I *don’t* want to see in the stars – or anywhere else – its that ugly old man. Its clear that you’re watching wa-aay too much political news.

But couldn’t you at least see Barack Obama in it given its a star birth region?

Eww .. bleck! You’re starting togoive paradoila (or whateveuh) a bad name ..

By: StevoR

StevoR — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:44:20 +0000

A very big thankyou to the folks who designed, built and are using the Hubble Space telscope, a big thankyou to the people at NASA and their astronauts for fixing and updating it (several times over) and thankyou Dr Phil Plait for telling us about it so clearly and so well.

I love your work!

Its awesome, and marvellous and please keep it coming! :-D

Thankyou.

By: Hubble: NGC 3324 « Medvetenskap

Hubble: NGC 3324 « Medvetenskap — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 21:03:05 +0000

[...] [via Bad Astronomy] [...]

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 12:00:37 +0000

Wait a second! Isn’t this McCain’s silhouette in the last picture? What the…!

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:59:49 +0000

So, Phil, what is now “commonly” given to commemorate a 75th anniversary, hmmm?

By: Nigel Depledge

Nigel Depledge — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:58:13 +0000

Dylo said:

Question:
If I where to, say, fly by this ’space amoeba’ in my intergalactic cruiser would it appear to me as it is shown in this picture or has it been taken using other parts of the light spectrum (radiation, gamma, IR, etc) to make it look prettier? If so, how would it really look? Would it even be visible to the naked eye?

Although you might see it as a fuzzy cloud, it is unlikely for the fine detail we see in this image to be visible to the unaided eye. This is because the gas, while relatively dense, is still very, very rarefied. Some nebulae have a lower gas density than what would be considered a fairly hard vacuum in a lab on Earth. Hubble images almost all result from quite long exposures – this one was probably at least several minutes, if not over an hour.

Celestial objects such as this nebula are faint. Even through a medium-sized telescope, most nebulae appear to the human eye as no more than a little faint fuzzy patch.

By: R.C. Beckom

R.C. Beckom — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 04:04:08 +0000

my hat’s off to the amazemeent of the sky, what mystical thing are found out the Great wonder of the universe, Hubble, you will be forever my eyesite to the wonderments of the universe.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 03:11:25 +0000

To all the men and women who worked on Hubble: Cheers. Your contribution to the human race is unforgettable.

By: Anne

Anne — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:29:22 +0000

It’s also neat to realize why it’s not just round. It’s not just because there are variations in the density of the interstellar medium – there’s a fluid-dynamical process (the “Rayleigh-Taylor instability”) that you can demonstrate at home that ensures that small irregularities balloon into the wonderful exotic shapes we see.

By: Bigfoot

Bigfoot — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 23:23:37 +0000

Stunning. Humbling.

By: Daniel

Daniel — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 22:56:00 +0000

If this is Hubbles gift…ill take 10

By: Logan

Logan — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 19:38:53 +0000

Those images are amazing. Makes me want to master space/time travel.

By: Larian LeQuella

Larian LeQuella — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:29:45 +0000

What a beautiful legacy to have!

By: Thomas Siefert

Thomas Siefert — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:26:27 +0000

Every time I see these images of nebulae, I think of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Every time I read or hear the name Khan, I get an urge to let out a prolonged: “KHAAAAAAAAN!”.
It drives my wife nuts but the diamond she got on our tenth anniversary comforted her somewhat.

By: NoAstronomer

NoAstronomer — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:15:27 +0000

APOD for today (10/2) is also a fantastic Hubble picture.

By: IVAN3MAN

IVAN3MAN — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 18:05:24 +0000

^*Technically and traditionally, the tenth anniversary gift should be tin, but in modern times it’s common to give diamonds.

A cheap husband would give you an argument.

By: Dyldo

Dyldo — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:54:31 +0000

Beautiful.

Question:
If I where to, say, fly by this ‘space amoeba’ in my intergalactic cruiser would it appear to me as it is shown in this picture or has it been taken using other parts of the light spectrum (radiation, gamma, IR, etc) to make it look prettier? If so, how would it really look? Would it even be visible to the naked eye?

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:52:28 +0000

These are always my favorite sort of Hubble pix. The scale is what always gets me. That little pseudopod is…how big? Eep!

By: IVAN3MAN

IVAN3MAN — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:52:19 +0000

Every time I see these images of nebulae, I think of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Great pix, Phil. Thanks for the links.

By: madge

madge — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:38:21 +0000

Absolutely amazing! Thanks Phil and THANK YOU HUBBLE. Hang in there Hubble. Help is on the way.

By: !AstralProjectile

!AstralProjectile — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:02:57 +0000

“It’s a cavity several light years across…”, “See the little pseudopods sticking in around the edges?”

I’ts a giant space-amoeba. Break out the antimatter!

First!?