posted by
Fnord666
on Friday July 19 2019, @11:13PM
from the I-thought-astronomers-spotted-things dept.
from the I-thought-astronomers-spotted-things dept.
Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. One of the key galaxy types we see in the universe is the spiral galaxy, as demonstrated in an especially beautiful way by the subject of this Hubble Space Telescope image, NGC 2985. NGC 2985 lies over 70 million light-years from the solar system in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear).
The intricate, near-perfect symmetry on display here reveals the incredible complexity of NGC 2985. Multiple tightly wound spiral arms widen as they whirl outward from the galaxy's bright core, slowly fading and dissipating until these majestic structures disappear into the emptiness of intergalactic space, bringing a beautiful end to their starry splendor.
[...] The image (1.7MB) can be found here.
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Hubble Spots A Stunning Spiral: NGC2985
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by istartedi on Friday July 19 2019, @11:26PM (4 children)
Nice to see the Hubble still blowing us away after all these years. That galaxy... is it even proper to say it has arms? It's more like a sunflower made from clumps of stars.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Friday July 19 2019, @11:36PM (2 children)
Less political spin in the Fine Summery!
Convocating with the sublime, are we? (/sarc)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:38AM (1 child)
No matter how you hard you may try, you cannot politicize the movements of the heavenly bodies over millions of years. Politics stop working once you hit geological scales of time.
In other words, by the time that galaxy dissipates, there could've been tens of thousand of civilizations born, living, and dying. Their politics impotent and boring to any being who's mind spans cosmic time.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Saturday July 20 2019, @06:16AM
Kinda my point. Put this particular one on my observation list. Wasn't that the line from Firefly? You cannot take the sky from me. Close to Bode's Galaxy.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday July 20 2019, @12:26AM
Too bad we don't see a LUVOIR-class telescope going up every year. It's time to make Hubble obsolete*.
WFIRST [wikipedia.org] is on shaky ground:
*Actually, the demand for observation time can scale essentially infinitely, to the point where billions of galaxies are imaged and there are dedicated telescopes aimed at nearby stars, the planets, etc. 24/7 (as long as it is in the field of view). So Hubble could be used and repaired indefinitely unless we choose to stick it in a museum or it becomes easier to send up a dozen new Hubble-class telescopes instead of repairing it.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:41AM (2 children)
I love images like this :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @07:08AM
Those of us in the amateur observational astronomy community refer to things like this (galaxies) as "faint fuzzies". We can see them, but nothing like the definition Hubble provides. But still, when I look at a galaxy through my 203mm Newtonian reflector, I am having photons from that object impact my retina, we have a connection. This is why astrophotography, as nice as it is at capturing things that human eyes could never see, is lacking it this direct connection. I prefer real light. It may be old, in some cases almost 13 Billions years old, but it is light I see with my own eyes, here and now.
(Score: 3, Informative) by inertnet on Saturday July 20 2019, @11:32AM
Then you will probably also like APOD [nasa.gov].
(Score: 1) by jmichaelhudsondotnet on Saturday July 20 2019, @03:06PM
This is neat, thanks for posting.
The chances of there being no life in this galaxy are 0.
Or, after remembering Strunk and White,
There is life somewhere in that galaxy.
Or in pirate talk,
Thar beee life in yonder galaxy.
I wish them well to the extent they aren't coming to kill us.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 21 2019, @07:42AM
is prettier than yours