A galactic pinwheel
Click for original image.
It’s cool image time, partly because we have a cool image and partly because there is little news today due to the holiday. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and was released today as the science team’s picture of the week. It shows us a classic pinwheel galaxy located approximately 46 million light years away. From the caption:
A spiral galaxy seen face-on. Its centre is crossed by a broad bar of light. A glowing spiral arm extends from each end of this bar, both making almost a full turn through the galaxy’s disc before fading out.
The bright object with the four spikes of light is a foreground star inside the Milky Way and only 436 light years away. The bright orange specks inside the spiral arms are likely star forming regions, with the blue indicating gas clouds.
As for the holiday, I’ll have more to say about Memorial Day later today.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Click for original image.
It’s cool image time, partly because we have a cool image and partly because there is little news today due to the holiday. The picture to the right, cropped, reduced, and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and was released today as the science team’s picture of the week. It shows us a classic pinwheel galaxy located approximately 46 million light years away. From the caption:
A spiral galaxy seen face-on. Its centre is crossed by a broad bar of light. A glowing spiral arm extends from each end of this bar, both making almost a full turn through the galaxy’s disc before fading out.
The bright object with the four spikes of light is a foreground star inside the Milky Way and only 436 light years away. The bright orange specks inside the spiral arms are likely star forming regions, with the blue indicating gas clouds.
As for the holiday, I’ll have more to say about Memorial Day later today.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
I love galaxy hunting.