Hats - or Sombreros - off to Hubble & Spitzer!

[CFLarsen]

"Old" picture of the Sombrero Galaxy:

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2003/28/images/a/formats/large_web.jpg

New picture of the Sombrero Galaxy:

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/114270main_spitzer-050405-browse.jpg

This new image of Messier 104, the Sombrero galaxy, combines a recent infrared observation from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope with a well-known visible light image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
NASA (http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/spitzer-050405.html)

Is that beautiful or what?

[Anders W. Bonde]

Stunning!

Please excuse me for displaying my ignorance: Is it the remains of a supernova? If so, am I correct in assuming that the bulk of the blown away 'heavy' matter is in an essentially planar ring due to the exploding star's initial rotation? (A 'fixed' sphere I would assume to explode in a sperical pattern only, like the (presumably) light matter that may not have been affected by the initial rotation.

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Oh my, that is truly beautiful. Can't be natural. Gotta be some woo-woo explanation for it.

~~ Paul

[neutrino_cannon]

Well, in all fairness, that's probably a false-color image. Don't know if that counts as a woo-woo explaination, unless of course it was done by telepathy.

[CFLarsen]

Somehow, I can't really see the problems of financing a space telescope, just to get pictures like these, then sell them as posters.

Imagine if these posters would be found next to the posters of the latest boybands. Which posters do you think would spark the most ideas?

Dang, that is an amazing image...

[SpaceFluffer]

I prefer the original image...what's better about the false color image exactly?
Originally posted by Anders W. Bonde
Please excuse me for displaying my ignorance: Is it the remains of a supernova?No, it's a galaxy containing billions of stars. It's much like our own Milky Way galaxy, but the Sombrero's structure is different (i.e. many more globular clusters, etc.)

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by SpaceFluffer
I prefer the original image...what's better about the false color image exactly?

You assume that the human eye is the best recipient for the best images. It isn't.

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
You assume that the human eye is the best recipient for the best images. It isn't.

No, he didn't assume that.

He merely asked you what is better about the false color image.

[SpaceFluffer]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
You assume that the human eye is the best recipient for the best images. It isn't. Far from it. But since you're presenting an image using visible light, and since that's all my crappy body can image at the moment, my question is why is this visible light image better than the older one?

Believe me, I can fully appreciate the implications of viewing an image in IR, X-rays, or whatever. But last time I checked, artwork is usually created to be visible to humans.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by SpaceFluffer
Far from it. But since you're presenting an image using visible light, and since that's all my crappy body can image at the moment, my question is why is this visible light image better than the older one?

Believe me, I can fully appreciate the implications of viewing an image in IR, X-rays, or whatever. But last time I checked, artwork is usually created to be visible to humans.

Then I don't understand your question at all.

It's early here.

[Chupacabras]

THERE goes Planet X *sigh*

[T'ai Chi]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
Then I don't understand your question at all.


So if you don't understand, you just assume that he is assuming??

Logic must be a scarce commodity over there.

[neutrino_cannon]

I can only assume that the new information is best presented in a false color format.

Spitzer adds new detail to the galaxy's bright, bulbous core and its thick, outer dust lanes. Infrared light traces the dust and makes the dark, murky ring glow brilliantly. The clumpy dust ring also becomes transparent in infrared. This allows a clear view of the inner disk of stars within the dust ring.

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by neutrino_cannon
I can only assume that the new information is best presented in a false color format.

I don't like that term, "false color". It indicates that only the colors humans see are real.

Nah - let's include the whole spectrum, but make it visible to us.

Dang, that is a beautiful image....

[neutrino_cannon]

Perhaps you would prefer...

"compressed spectrum"

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by neutrino_cannon
Perhaps you would prefer...

"compressed spectrum"

Clever! :)

[neutrino_cannon]

That does of course assume that the spectra in the picture are ordered in the same "direction", frequency wise, that the detected infra red waves were.

I've always wanted to be able to see in UV. That would be a kick, to see all the patterns on flowers that were hitherto the domain of the pollenating insects alone. What mesmerizing patterns might lie, just a few angstroms out of reach, on the modified leaves of lillies, roses, and the other assorted angiosperms that we (rather heartlessly) cut up and present to our girlfriends?

If, in the places between base red and higher violet, there is enough reproductive splendor to induce some fine lady not to dump us for another week, than what regal patterns must lie beyond, that cause bees, hummingbirds and the varried lepidoptera (and anything else that sojourns to the flowers for the appreciation of art and sucrose) to savor their wares before those of another flower?


Ohhhh...

makes me wonder.

[The Central Scrutinizer]

Originally posted by CFLarsen
Is that beautiful or what?

God is truly great!

[Darat]

neutrino_cannon, it’s a bit of a sidetrack but it's still about wonderful natural images so: http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV_flowers_list.html

http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV/POTE_ANS_D990618915.jpg

http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV/POTE_ANS_D990618923.jpg

http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV/RANU_FIC_I030507083.jpg

http://www.naturfotograf.com/UV/RANU_FIC_I030507098.jpg

[neutrino_cannon]

Pretty round objects
Be they large or be they small
Let me see all hues!

[Anders W. Bonde]

Ooops!

SpaceFluffer - If I'd just payed attention to the word Galaxy - dunno why I was thunkin 'nebula' at the time - must've been sleepy.

[/If only I could keep my mouth shut until I'm done tninking]

[CFLarsen]

Originally posted by Anders W. Bonde
[/If only I could keep my mouth shut until I'm done tninking]

That would mean that your post count would not incr....

....oops. ;)