Thursday, March 13, 2008

Teh Awesome

From our pals at NASA




Explanation: The striking spiral galaxy M104 is famous for its nearly edge-on profile featuring a broad ring of obscuring dust. Seen in silhouette against a bright bulge of stars, the swath of cosmic dust lanes lends a hat-like appearance to the galaxy in optical images suggesting the more popular moniker, The Sombrero Galaxy. Here, Hubble Space Telescope archival image data has been reprocessed to create this alternative look at the well-known galaxy. The newly developed processing improves the visibility of details otherwise lost in overwhelming glare, in this case allowing features of the galaxy's dust lanes to be followed well into the bright central region. About 50,000 light-years across and 28 million light-years away, M104 is one of the largest galaxies at the southern edge of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster.

7 comments:

jazzizbest said...

truly stunning and remarkable!

Chimera said...

Spectacular!

Doesn't it just resemble a "mothership," though...

liberal supporter said...

Looks pretty grimy on the Outer Rim. Probably desert worlds ruled by slugs.

Lindsay Stewart said...

iberal supporter, i think you give mr. ross too much credit.

Frank Frink said...

Spectacular!

Doesn't it just resemble a "mothership," though...


Yeah, and when I squint hard enough I can just barely make out George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and a host of funkateers emerging from the centre holding 'bop' guns.

E in MD said...

And obviously it's all just painted on the glass bowl suspended above the earth by the four pillars.

You know, the one that holds up the water that falls through the windows in the bowl when it rains. So sayeth the Bible!

liberal supporter said...

And obviously it's all just painted on the glass bowl suspended above the earth by the four pillars.

No, it's turtles all the way down!