Hubble Telescope Photos

Because it's Friday, we thought you might enjoy something on the lighter side. A couple years ago, astronauts voted to name to the top ten photographs taken by the Hubble telescope. Below is the winner and a couple other contenders. You can check out more Hubble photos here.

The Winner The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

Others

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes... The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.

Read more about it in this Daily Mail article.

Comments

[treblem]

10:42 PM on 04/27/2009

I don't know you guys. whatever doubtful, fearful or unbelief comments. But ask for me with or without evidence I will not give up my faith to our creator Christ Jesus... Make up your mind...

[Simon Javens]

03:41 AM on 05/13/2009

Because you need god, even if he/she is not real. Because you would go nuts if you had nothing to believe in. It comforts you before death to help you pass.
I am not religious but before I die I expect I will have some belief but I don't think there is any point in dedicating a life time to him unless you're really messed up and need something to turn to.
Ah I could go on but im at work.... bye

[Blindfaith88]

11:58 PM on 04/19/2009

On a lighter note, the pictures are very beautiful, its hard to believe that while here on earth where ppl are fighting over Trivial differences and unproven mistakes that something so huge and magnificent could be going on all around us.

[Nacio]

10:03 PM on 04/18/2009

Awesome created by an Awesome God...

[Anthro]

10:12 PM on 04/18/2009

Rubbish! And just where does this "god" reside? Just because it's awesome doesn't mean some imaginary being is responsible. He's all in your head.

[Temsi]

10:16 PM on 04/18/2009

And who created your awesome god?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
And then who created his awesome creator?
Etc, etc. ad infinitum.
The god hypothesis is illogical, irrational and not based on any evidence.

[susanstudioz]

10:33 PM on 04/18/2009

Whomever promised us a LOGICAL God? With our infinitesimal brains - compared to just this AWE that we can finally SEE - just what makes YOU think - GOD - is going to be anything you can understand?

Try some RIGHT BRAIN thinking - it gets you part way there!

[Pyfagorus]

10:54 PM on 04/18/2009

Thinkers have been dealing with this issue since the time of Plato, if not earlier. It isn't as simple as it may seem. Do some research on "cosmological argument" and "first cause." Even without addressing the notion of a God, it's a puzzlement to ask what "caused" or "came before" the Big Bang, since causation implies the existence of linear time.

[PrincipiaChamp]

09:52 PM on 04/18/2009

Absolutely breathtaking.

[bonnieschultz]

09:25 PM on 04/18/2009

SPACE. IS. AWESOME.
Space! Woot!

[euthman]

09:19 PM on 04/18/2009

There are a lot of posts here expressing beliefs. Beliefs are irrelevant. Evidence is what counts, and unfortunately there is no evidence that life evolved anywhere but on this planet. I look forward to following and supporting the search for evidence of life elsewhere. There are some really exciting astronomy projects in the works now, which will make it possible to image earthlike planets, but as to what they will find I have no idea.

[Pyfagorus]

09:47 PM on 04/18/2009

"There's absolutely no evidence that all roads don't lead to Rome." -- the Romans

[Anthro]

10:13 PM on 04/18/2009

I love you. A rational statement for once. Your picture's nice too!

[tierone]

09:06 PM on 04/18/2009

I haven't read all pages, but I'm sure this has been posted at least once. If not, here, if so, here again:

Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? - Douglas Adams

[PrincipiaChamp]

09:45 PM on 04/18/2009

I like Mr. Adams ;-)

[themodernleader]

08:23 PM on 04/18/2009

Reader 451. An apt, penetrating conclusion based upon the empirical data and our historical experience. All you bloggers, thank you for your touching and thoughtful analyses. The sppechless enormousness of this universe compells human kind to explore forward, learn and be forever wiser.

[Coyote2]

07:49 PM on 04/18/2009

A mathematical analysis says that life is written into the laws of reality. DNA is built from a set of twenty amino acids - the first ten can create simple prebiotic life. It seems that those ten are thermodynamically destined to occur wherever they can.

Thermodynamics is the Big Brother of science. You can apply quantum mechanics at certain scales, and Newtonian mechanics work at the right speeds, but if Thermodynamics says something then everyone listens.

An energy analysis by Professors Pudritz and Higgs of McMaster University shows that the first ten amino acids are likely to form at relatively low temperatures and pressures, and the calculated odds of formation match the concentrations of these life-chemicals found in meteorite samples.

THE IMPLICATIONS ARE STAGGERING: first, we are probably not alone, and bad news for anyone who demands some kind of "Designer" to put life together - it seems that the physical laws of the universe can assemble the organic jigsaw all by itself, and has probably done so throughout the universe.

The study indicates that you don't need a miracle to arrive at the chemical cocktail for early life, just a decently large asteroid. That's all.

The entire universe could be stuffed with life whose DNA is close enough to our own to justify the Battlestar Galactica ending
Posted by Luke McKinney

~
This mathematical thermodynamic analysis suggests that life is a byproduct of the universe, and NOT a rare event.

[Anthro]

10:18 PM on 04/18/2009

That is just fascinating and thank you for the post. From what I have previously read and heard on science podcasts (I'm certainly not a professional) I wouldn't be surprised to find life elsewhere, but the odds are long indeed that there are any beings with brains quite like ours. What do you think; you are certainly someone I'd like to have a coffee or two with!

[TRichards]

06:30 PM on 04/18/2009

The shots are remarkable but I understand that they are colorized -- that the colors are artist's renditions rather than what is actually picked up by the telescope. Does anyone have any KNOWLEDGE (vs. opinion) on this?

Thanks.

[Temsi]

06:50 PM on 04/18/2009

I'm no expert on the subject, but as far as I've been able to gather, this is what is done:

Since a lot of what is "seen" by the telescope can not be seen through visible light (i.e. by the human eye), they use a composite method to make it visible to us.

The photos are various different shots using various different methods (visible light, x-rays, ultra-violet, infra-red and more) which reveal different aspects and layers of the chemicals found in the region.
These are then filtered through red, green or blue (or a combination thereof) which is at least in some way based on the relative frequency of the "image", to make the images you see.

So the actual color representation may not be accurate, but it accurately represents what is there, in a way our eyes can see.

[Coyote2]

07:47 PM on 04/18/2009

Thank you.

[Larry Stevens]

06:12 PM on 04/18/2009

Hard to imagine it takes 25,000 years for the light from the center of the Sombrero galaxy to reach its edge and the whole thing fits on my computer screen.

[Coyote2]

07:48 PM on 04/18/2009

very cute

[rajoro]

10:45 PM on 04/18/2009

Uh... try 28 million years... not 25, 000...

[naturallight]

05:31 PM on 04/18/2009

The only thing bigger than the Universe is the ego of the posters below who think they have a clue. Get over yourselves a bit. Humble yourselves heathens. Killer apes.

[mergina]

04:54 PM on 04/18/2009

There is SO much life in the universe. It really is too bad that humanity, unable to free itself from the GRIP OF GREED, will probably never get to meet it, unless it comes here and soon.

[ToolArmy81]

06:44 PM on 04/18/2009

We will meet it, one day. We are that light... we are energy, it is the humanity that has us under the grip of greed. 2012 we enter into the photon belt... be ready to catch some rays!

[Temsi]

06:55 PM on 04/18/2009

Unless there's a species out there with Warp technology or has figured out sub-space travel via worm holes or something similar, there's next to 0% chance of us meeting them, the distances are simply too great.
Besides, life on other planets may not be anything like ours, it may not even necessarily be carbon based. It could be something completely foreign to us.
Mathematically speaking it's very unlikely we are alone in the universe - but not impossible, so we must also take that into consideration. We could just be a cosmic accident.

[MalloMel]

09:32 PM on 04/18/2009

"Unless there's a species out there with Warp technology or has figured out sub-space travel via worm holes or something similar, there's next to 0% chance of us meeting them, the distances are simply too great."

Our technological age is perhaps 150 years old, and look at what we have accomplished. The Universe is over 13 billion years old, as far as we can tell. Now, just think how much an intelligent race of beings, carbon based, silicon based, or some other kind of based, might accomplish in a million or a billion or more years of technological advancement.

Just because some of our brightest minds believe that nothing can travel faster than light, doesn't necessarily make it so. If they were using alien math developed over thousands or millions of millennia, they just might see things differently.

[kburlz]

04:52 PM on 04/18/2009

There are more stars in the sky than all the words that have ever been spoken, by every person, who ever lived.

[CosmicSpaceTurtle]

03:58 PM on 04/18/2009

How can anybody look at these images and behold the absolute incomprehensible vastness of the universe, and still believe that Earth is the only planet where life evolved?

It's absurd.

[susanstudioz]

05:16 PM on 04/18/2009

We REALLY don't know if that thought is absurd or not - do we?

Maybe what we see is just The Grand Creator/God's PLAYGROUND and EARTH is IT, as far as having any 'reasonable' kind of 'LIFE' goes!

Nobody knows - so it's not absurd to think that earth is the only place with 'THINKING BEINGS anymore than the Universe is full of all kinds of Creatures!

When we DON'T KNOW - we DON'T KNOW . . . Anybody's guess and countless Sci-Fi movies are just as absurd as the next idea(s).

Just PROVE it and then we can say whatever is ABSURD is ABSURD . . .

[praire2paradise]

06:21 PM on 04/18/2009

It's only absurd when you use your kind of silly narrow-mindedness to justify the torture of a Galileo or the trial of a science teacher like Scopes. I have a friend who was a design engineer for the space shuttle. He was back at university studying the amazing stuff in these pictures and working on a PhD in astro-physics when he had a change of heart and decided to go back to his rural hometown and teach the kids about science and the universe. He was blocked from that by narrow-minded twits in the state education department. Instead he is now an aerospace engineer in corporate America waiting for another lay-off. That says so much about what is wrong with America. How much knowledge and inspiration were those poor kids denied? Someday your creationist drivel will be supplanted by a humble awe for the wonder of the universe and the never ending human quest for real knowledge. The universe is just a "playground", indeed. By the way, your IT will be gone in a few billion years. Maybe you are just a lifeform on a temporary "playground". Don't believe me? Ask an astro-physicist.

[ToolArmy81]

06:55 PM on 04/18/2009

It's quite selfish, I think, to believe that OUR rock is the only rock with senses to witness the beauty. And quite ignorant to go along trashing it and carry on the way we do.

"Repugnant is the creature who would squander the ability to lift an eye to heaven conscious of his fleeting time here." - Tool

[LeftTexas]

06:03 PM on 04/18/2009

The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

[Temsi]

09:43 PM on 04/18/2009

In Science, absence of evidence means you cannot make any claims, not even the one you just made.
Therefore, absence of evidence is not an argument for the existence of whatever it is there is no evidence of.
A claim without evidence is worthless and meaningless.