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An Easter gift for SST commenters, posters, & of course our host:
Stunning Hubble Image
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/1004/ngc602_hst_large.jpg
NGC 602 and Beyond-
“Near the outskirts of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy some 200 thousand light-years distant, lies 5 million year young star cluster NGC 602. Surrounded by natal gas and dust, NGC 602 is featured in this stunning Hubble image of the region. Fantastic ridges and swept back shapes strongly suggest that energetic radiation and shock waves from NGC 602’s massive young stars have eroded the dusty material and triggered a progression of star formation moving away from the cluster’s center. At the estimated distance of the Small Magellanic Cloud, the picture spans about 200 light-years, but a tantalizing assortment of background galaxies are also visible in the sharp Hubble view. The background galaxies are hundreds of millions of light-years or more beyond NGC 602.”
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100403.html
Happy Easter/Passover Season to all.
Thanks Maureen.
I’ve enjoyed the astronomical posts at the The Athenaeum.
Stunning and fantastic are apt adjectives for these images.
That they occurred 200,000 years ago long before man or Christ, and that the odds of either being around when today’s distant events reach our heavens is close to zero, gives me a bit of perspective regarding the import of the Pope and I in Creation.
I’ve enjoyed the astronomical posts at the The Athenaeum. I bought an 8″ telescope for the cottage, where its pitch black and crystal clear, accounting for moon phases and weather. I’ll be observing for the first time this summer, which commenced yesterday with the holy ritual of the removal of the shutters and making of the bed. Five blessed weeks ahead of schedule thanks to the sub-par efforts of the snow god this winter. Much to the dismay of our farmers, who last year laboured under clouds and rain all summer here in Ontario.
So Happy Easter my fellows. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Maureen,
Thank you for bringing the NASA APOD to the attention of the readership here.
Photos such as the one you linked to,I think and hope, help us to understand our place in the vast universe around us.
Happy Easter to you and your family, Pat. And Happy Easter/Passover to the entire SST clan. I find it interesting that the icon in this painting (Kurskaya Korrenaya) is now in Manhattan.
Maureen, that is the most stunning Hubble image that I have ever seen. Thanks
Happy Easter and Passover. And for all you DC folks, enjoy the sunshine. Winter is over!
Maureen Lang,
Uncanny coincidence. Yesterday, I emailed that very photo image to the recently turned 15 year old son of the woman I am dating. It was done so under the subject heading, astronomy beckons!
Of course, because of my myers briggs type, I tend to look at it as cosmology beckons. And, lo and behold, last Friday night, my lady friend, who is a top notch attorney but with a number one priority of motherhood (understatement), and I had time to go to a local planetarium to watch a short film about astronomy and cosmology. An arguably nerdy evening, I suppose, but she is the daughter of a professor of organic chemistry and her mother is a medical doctor/toxicologist, so she is at home going to planetariums to watch short science films and actually prefers such to the high life. I’m blessed.
Here is the Kurskaya tie in. After our trip to the planetarium, which also included a short walk to an observatory to look at Mars, we drove back to where I live and kicked back, as I am wont to do. And after drinking a few glasses of red wine, I told her that I think that the Garden of Eden now extends way out into universe and in many ways our function remains the same, to look at it all in awe and perhaps to name a few things. The history of science has pushed the boundaries of the Garden of Eden inward to the nano world and outward into the universe. And if you take that idea to its (logical????) conclusion, then everything becomes drastically rearranged and we humans are suddenly at the center of the universe again, the Garden of Eden being the universe with no defined dimensions.
Or relying upon the Russian (via NYC and Estonia) Alexander Schmemann’s book on the Eucharist, the entire universe is a sacramental temple.
And I only had a few glasses of red wine. Not that expensive either as I had purchased a bottle from Trader Joes. From time to time, I am in awe of Trader Joes, which I believe started out in the City of Angels. At least that is where I first found about TJ.
But, good Lord, speaking of wine, cosmology, astronomy, and California, don’t forget the valley of the moon, aka Sonoma.
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap100404.html
Amazing!!! Happy Easter
Happy Easter!
All,
Hope everyone is having as enjoyable & relaxing a holiday Sunday chez vous as we are here.
I put up a slideshow on the big Bravia in our den during Easter brunch consisting of astropics by Cieran, John Minnerath, other friends, & assorted APOD including the link above. Made for great conversations among the eight of us.
Stumbled, luckily and by happenstance, upon Rimsky-Korsakov’s Russian Easter overture, which, in turn, makes for a mild attempt to score Rapin’s work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XId7e3IoNk