| A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... |
[Jul. 1st, 2009|02:22 pm] |
Courtesy of the ESA, here is a cool new pic from the Herschel space telescope, showing galaxy M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy.
It's a composite of visible light and far infra red, so it's not quite what you'd see if you were close enough to look at it with the naked eye, but it does allow us to see the areas where star formation is most concentrated (the red bits).
What I love about this kind of technology is that it not only allows us to see vast distances across space, but back in time too. Since M51 is 35 million light-years away, that means this pic is a snapshot of what was happening 35 million years ago. And that's just damn cool, however you cut it. :) |
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| Another possible hiding place for life in the Solar System? |
[Jun. 25th, 2009|11:15 am] |
I was interested to see this on the news this morning.
Alongside Europa (one of Jupiter's moons, for the non space-geeks) that's two possible places besides Earth where scientists think there might be liquid water, and liquid water is one of the major requirements for life as we know it.
So, I hope NASA gets some probes out there sharpish that can penetrate the surface and see what's underneath. I suspect that if life does exist on Europa and/or Enceladus, it'll probably be very similar to the kinds of life we find thriving around geothermal vents on our ocean floors. So, we probably wouldn't be able to invite these extraterrestrials round to tea or anything, but it would be damned exciting all the same! :) |
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