Comments on: The cold arms and hot, hot heart of the fuzzy maiden

By: Space; the final frontier, now where have i heard that before « Fuzzypictures's Weblog

Wed, 23 May 2012 17:21:56 +0000

[...] with earlier images in infrared taken by Spitzer Space Telescope (which I’ve inset here) and a huge and incredibly beautiful newer one taken with ESA’s Herschel far-infrared telescope (and OMFSM you want to click that [...]

By: bottom-up

bottom-up — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 17:51:24 +0000

I know this is late but in the xray only image it appears that there is a rather large spheroid of shocked gas surrounding the galaxy’s core, Shades of Larry Niven. Too bad the Ringworld would be too small to spot at this distance!

Question. Which edge is closest to us, the upper right or the lower left? My eyes insist on interpreting the image either way with no effort at all; just a quick flick of the old Mark one eyeballs and the image inverts.

By: Tech Gadget Reviews » Which Photo Was Shot by the European Space Agency, and Which One is Amateur? [Space]

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 22:07:13 +0000

[...] make you salivate with jealousy over his skill (and equipment). [Steve Loughran via Daily Mail and Discover - Thanks, [...]

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 21:20:16 +0000

@32 Richard Woods: Thanks!
*reading*
Wow, human ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.

By: Qual das fotos foi tirada pela agência espacial européia e qual foi tirada por um amador? | Gizmodo Brasil

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 18:08:18 +0000

[...] fazer você babar de inveja de suas habilidades (e equipamento). [Steve Loughran via Daily Mail and Discover - Valeu, Christopher!] var random = Math.floor(Math.random() * 1000000000); [...]

By: Richard Woods

Richard Woods — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 07:35:52 +0000

@ #29 Joseph G

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolter_telescope — “X-rays mirrors can be built, but only if the angle from the plane of reflection is very low (typically 10 arc-minutes to 2 degrees). These are called glancing incidence mirrors.”

There are a variety of designs for X-ray telescopes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-ray_telescope), but XMM-Newton, like Chandra X-ray Observatory, uses the Wolter I grazing-incidence design. See http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_user_support/documentation/technical/Mirrors/index.shtml

By: «bønez_brigade»

«bønez_brigade» — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 04:24:41 +0000

Bad. Ass.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:54:43 +0000

@#18 Matt B: I’m sure you could do it with Photoshop or Gimp, but I’m not sure exactly what you’re looking to do. And we don’t even know what colors, if any, aliens would see. if orientation is all we’re looking to establish, wouldn’t it make more sense to just have a monochrome image based on IR, visible and UV light, averaged together? Just so they can recognize what it is and how it’s oriented?
Or maybe I don’t understand what you’re talking about (knowing me, this is quite possible).

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:47:05 +0000

Ooh, another noob question: How can such detailed images be made of X-ray sources? Are there actually lenses and mirrors that can refract and reflect x-rays without lots of absorption or aberration?

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:43:58 +0000

This might be a clueless question, but why would dust that’s a few degrees above absolute zero show up so well in the infrared? Wouldn’t it be radiating most strongly in radio frequencies? I thought objects that were a few hundred kelvins or so were the ones that radiated most strongly in the infrared?