Latest Hubble Snaptastic goodness: Centaurus A
Boffinry chiefs in control of the mighty Hubble Space Telescope have released the latest imagery from its most advanced instrument, Wide Field Camera 3, of the relatively nearby galaxy Centaurus A - well known for its spectacular space dust clouds. The galaxy Centaurus A imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA, ESA, …
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Maybe it's just because it's nearly beer o'clock...
but it puts me in mind if a freshly poured pint of Guinness.
Aaahh, the swirl...
See above.
Wrong colour, but WTF, it's Friday now... ;o)
Well done Hubble and crew
And thanks for the post of our nextdoor neighbors.
I think I've mentioned before...
... how this kind of stuff fascinates me.
But but but.... It would be handy if someone could stick a scale on the picture so I can get an idea of dimensions, eg, 1,10,100,1000 solar systems (e.g. 1, 10, 100, 1000 AU etc)
Have I mentioned how this stuff fascinates me :p I think it's the vastness that is awe inspring.
re: It would be handy
Scales only work with flattish things, these pictures show objects at varying distances. "This one is small, that one is far away."
Scale
Yes, for comparison, it is about 100 times the width of a human hair.
Err, hang on. <wipes screen>, errm maybe it's a bit bigger.
Re: I think I've mentioned before...
I think you need to move to a slightly smaller / larger scale view of the universe. Start by adding quite a lot more noughts to the end of those AU numbers...
Pedantic relativistic scale Nazi alert! ;o)
But but but
Apparently you're not so fascinated that you click on the Nasa link and look at the 'compass and scale image' ...
Just a pixel
It is a view at a galactic scale, so a solar system would be inside a pixel or at most two.
Humbling, isn't it?
I think a scale measured in AU
would be too small to see. You'd need a scale divided into probably tens of light years.
*sigh*
No more shuttles; these images will soon be unobtainable again.
Is it just me or do those dust clouds represent the dark ages this stupid planet seems to be heading into?
Lets not forget all the raving loonies out there that view images like this as some form of heretical blasphemy.
James Webb space telescope
Just wait until the Hubble replacement goes up there. You ain't seen nothing yet ...
Neighbourhood Watch
You gotta keep an eye on these Centaurans. Did we learn nothing on Babylon 5?
Really?
"Some say that these gas clouds must have resulted from a pile-up with another galaxy at some time in the past." ...
No wonder our insurance premiums have gone up!
What is that stuff?
OK, so it looks like dust/Guiness from here, but what actually is that 'dust'? The NASA text is "dark lanes of dust crisscross the giant elliptical galaxy Centaurus A." but somehow I suspect 'dust' is a simplification...
Boffins only please....
Composition of Spacedust
Basically any detritus that's been pushed out by anything smashing into other things, or stuff going boom e.g. comets smashing into planets, novae, supernovae etc.
The actual composition is probably mostly light elements and maybe tiny bits of ex-planet, however it's 11 million light years away so, in truth, who the hell knows?
scale
The scaled photo shows 8000 light years square, and the dimensions are 1000x1000 pixels, so each pixel covers an area of about 10^23 Wales.
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