A ghost goddess in space
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The image to the right, cropped, rotated, reduced, and enhanced to post here, is without doubt one of my favorite objects that the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed over the decades. This new image combines imagery obtained by earlier Hubble cameras and the newer cameras installed in 2009.
The delicate sheets and intricate filaments are debris from the cataclysmic death of a massive star that once lived in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. DEM L 190 — also known as LMC N49 — is the brightest supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud and lies approximately 160 000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado.
What makes this supernova remnant so visually appealing to my eye is its ghostly resemblance to a woman’s face, her hair blowing freely to the right. The original 2003 Hubble picture, shown below, has been the desktop image of my computer for almost two decades.
Click for original image.
For reasons however that escape me, this new release was oriented with the face was upside down, compared to the 2003 release. Since north is not to the top in either image, it makes no sense to orient this differently than in 2003. I have corrected this mistake.
With the two images made to match, the new photo clearly reveals many more details without obscuring the face of the ghost goddess. For example, the blue filaments fill in the gaps and expand the size of the remnant significantly. Our goddess now has a much fuller head of hair.
The newer data was obtained, according to the press release, to study ” a soft gamma-ray repeater, an enigmatic object lurking in DEM L 190 which repeatedly emits high-energy bursts of gamma rays.” While astronomers think these objects are either magnetars or neutron stars, this is conjecture, as their origin is not yet understood.
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.
Cool image time! The image to the right, cropped, rotated, reduced, and enhanced to post here, is without doubt one of my favorite objects that the Hubble Space Telescope has photographed over the decades. This new image combines imagery obtained by earlier Hubble cameras and the newer cameras installed in 2009.
The delicate sheets and intricate filaments are debris from the cataclysmic death of a massive star that once lived in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. DEM L 190 — also known as LMC N49 — is the brightest supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud and lies approximately 160 000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation Dorado.
What makes this supernova remnant so visually appealing to my eye is its ghostly resemblance to a woman’s face, her hair blowing freely to the right. The original 2003 Hubble picture, shown below, has been the desktop image of my computer for almost two decades.
Click for original image.
For reasons however that escape me, this new release was oriented with the face was upside down, compared to the 2003 release. Since north is not to the top in either image, it makes no sense to orient this differently than in 2003. I have corrected this mistake.
With the two images made to match, the new photo clearly reveals many more details without obscuring the face of the ghost goddess. For example, the blue filaments fill in the gaps and expand the size of the remnant significantly. Our goddess now has a much fuller head of hair.
The newer data was obtained, according to the press release, to study ” a soft gamma-ray repeater, an enigmatic object lurking in DEM L 190 which repeatedly emits high-energy bursts of gamma rays.” While astronomers think these objects are either magnetars or neutron stars, this is conjecture, as their origin is not yet understood.
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
Whoah you mean skeletor ghoul ghost.
Cracks me up: https://youtu.be/F0080OXinq4
Yeah, kinda looks like a skull with woman’s hair to me.