Best Astronomy Pictures of 2007

Tonight, while you're pondering, weak and weary...

Oops! Wrong poem!

Before you settle down for a long winter's nap, let me suggest something a lot cooler than visions of sugar plums dancing in your head.

Astronomy may be the most visual and beautiful of all the science. Who can resist a grand design spiral galaxy, or a gas cloud where we know there are sun-like stars being born as we watch? As technology gets better, so too do the images brought down from the heavens. Every year I am astonished to see ever more gorgeous astronomical pictures coming from telescopes across -- and above -- the world, so I put together a Top Ten Astronomy Pictures of 2007 on my blog, Bad Astronomy.

And because the choices were so tough this year, I posted a Runners-Up List as well!

If the weather, the scandals, the family, the primaries, or just life is getting you down, then these pictures may just lift you up again. It's always nice to be reminded that there's a great big Universe out there, and it's pretty easy on the eyes.

Comments

[RaisingAwareness]

In the Milky Way, which is just 1 of billions of galaxies, many astronomers state that there could be some 10,000 planets that may harbor life.

There is a MUST-SEE film titled "Out of the Blue, The Definitive Investigation of the UFO Phenomenon" produced by James Fox. It will absolutely blow you away and it's even available through Blockbuster. It's the proof we've been asking for and it's absolutely amazing stuff! It would be impossible to overstate the importance of this film.

http://www.outofthebluethemovie.com/

[JoDeeVa]

Absolutely beautiful!
There's a YouTube video of a Monty Python song-and-dance skit that begins with.."Whenever life gets you down Mrs. Brown..just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving..." and goes on to explore some images with some (possibly slightly off) numerical statistics of the skies above and around us..and, ends with.."so, remember when you're feeling very small and insecure, how amazingly unlikely is your birth and pray that there is intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'cause there's bugger all down here on earth!"

As with all things Monty Python-esque, it is in jest, but clearly with all of the incredible images from Hubble, Voyager, etc. and friends down here on earth, there is great intelligence, helping us to learn and understand "space" with all we glean every time those images are relayed back to us "down here on earth!"

The final comment from Mrs. Brown.."It makes one feel so insignificant, doesn't it?" My sentiments exactly!
Thanks, Phil..I've been reading Bad Astronomy and exploring your images. Spectacularly amazing! The STEREO video, so stunningly simple, impacts me strongly, reminding me of our somewhat distorted perspective of our place in the universe. Most of us know the moon is smaller than the sun, but that is not how it appears to us, so to be reminded with such simplicity is humbling. We do tend to be just a bit egocentric, eh? Makes it incumbent on all of us, "down here on earth"..exploding in wars and political campaigns to remember all else that awaits our discovery in space, to take us outside of ourselves! Especially so, at this time of the year, with that brightly shining star we hear so much about, supposedly heralding events to come...

[anotherplayaguy]

Yep, concrete proof that the creator of the Universe has time to get me a parking space when I'm in town.