karmakramer Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 After 21 years, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to wow the world with mind-bending views of the universe. In celebration of its anniversary, the wonder continues with this gift of a galactic rose formed by a group of interacting galaxies roughly 300 million light years away from Earth. In the group, known as Arp 273, the upper, larger of the spiral galaxies, UGC 1810, has a disc that is tidally distorted into a rose-like shape by the gravitational pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813, according to an image advisory. The uncommon spiral patterns in the large galaxy are a tell-tale sign of interaction between the two galaxies. For example, the large, outer arm appears partially as a ring, a feature that is seen when interacting galaxies pass through one another. This suggests that the smaller companion galaxy actually dived deeply, but off-center, through UGC 1810. Other notable features in the image include: The inner set of spiral arms is highly warped out of the plane, with one of the arms going behind the bulge and combing back out the other side. How they connect isn't precisely known. A possible mini spiral may be visible in the spiral arms of UGC 1810 to the upper right. Note how the outermost spiral arm changes character as it passes this third galaxy, from smooth with lots of old stars on one side, to clumpy and extremely blue on the other. The swath of blue jewels across the top is the combined light from clusters of intensely bright and hot young blue stars, which glow fiercely in ultraviolet light. The smaller galaxy, viewed close to edge-on, shows signs of intense star formation in its nucleus that was perhaps triggered by the encounter with the companion galaxy. The larger galaxy in the UGC 1810-UGC 1813 pair has a mass that is about five times that of the smaller galaxy. In unequal pairs such as this, the relatively rapid passage of the companion galaxy produces the lopsided structure in the main spiral. The Hubble Space Telescope was launched from space shuttle Discovery on April 24, 1990. It circles the Earth once every 97 minutes. Though its digital postcards routinely wow the world, it hasn't always been smooth sailing, as noted in this photo trip through the telescope's highs and lows. NASA astronauts successfully performed a final servicing of the telescope in 2009 that should keep it sending back images for years to come. Meanwhile, the space agency is preparing Hubble's replacement, the James Webb Space Telescope, currently scheduled for launch in 2014. For now, though, let's wish Hubble a happy anniversary and thank it for the galactic rose. more images: A beautiful view of a star in its death throes is featured in a gallery of images sent back by the Hubble Space Telescope after its final shuttle servicing mission in May 2009. The planetary nebula NGC 6302, better known as the Butterfly Nebula or the Bug Nebula, is about 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The features that look like dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, blasted away from a dying star bigger than the sun. This picture was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. A clash involving members of the famous galaxy group known as Stephan's Quintet reveals an assortment of stars across a wide color range, from young, blue stars to aging, red stars. The new image of the grouping was taken by Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3. It's a bit of a misnomer to call this group a "quintet." Studies have shown that the galaxy NGC 7320, at upper left, is actually in the foreground, about seven times closer to Earth than the rest of the group Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 captured this panoramic view of a colorful assortment of 100,000 stars residing in the crowded core of the globular cluster Omega Centauri. The full cluster, which lies about 16,000 light-years from Earth, boasts nearly 10 million stars. The stars in Omega Centauri are between 10 billion and 12 billion years old An earlier image from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys shows the globular cluster Omega Centauri and provides the context for the space telescope's new image of the same cluster. The blue-lined box indicates the area covered by the newly released image from Wide Field Camera 3: about 6.3 light-years or 1.4 arcminutes wide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chassis Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Karmakramer is really stoned tonight Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boxing Day Posted April 20, 2011 Share Posted April 20, 2011 Thats awesome. My telescope its pretty big but i can't see shit (only the orion nebula and so clusters) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 still pretty darn cool boxing day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 the universe is nightmarishly huge and beautiful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o00o Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 lol best topic today (listening to BOC while looking at this ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 :nyan: :nyan: :nyan: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o00o Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr_Nova Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Some prime material here for the Nice Nebulae thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chassis Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 I think my spaceporn thread is the same thing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 link me up fellas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chassis Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 link me up fellas SPACEPR0NZ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 one more, cool colors!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awepittance Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
o00o Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 hair metal gas skeleton gets baked in space Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 nice luke lets get high watmm i certainly am. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhJ5TxQTSK8&feature=player_embedded#at=110 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8dK0iEzi1M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 still pretty darn cool boxing day... this looks like an eye with no pupil. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 HIGH DEFINITION!!!! BILLIONS AND BILLIONS :sagan: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karmakramer Posted April 21, 2011 Author Share Posted April 21, 2011 lol!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
luke viia Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 you are a sick and twisted man, yek but that's a beautiful anus you've spotted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YEK Posted April 21, 2011 Share Posted April 21, 2011 lol! thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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