Thursday, June 26, 2008
From the Astronomy Pic of the Day:
Explanation: Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the largest Hubble images ever made of a complete galaxy. NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. In fact, on close inspection the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of spiral structure about 3,000 light-years across. Unlike other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is not presently known to have a massive central black hole.
Click photo for larger. Click that for huge. Don't get lost in there.
Awe inspiring - immediately thought of this:
The Tyger
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire in thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art?
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand, and what dread feet?
What the hammer? What the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb, make thee?
Tyger! Tyger! burning bright,
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
-- William Blake
November 28th, 1757 - August 12, 1827
How I wish he could see this.
I read your blog regularly and it's great to see the occasional astronomy blurb. That picture is gorgeous - it's so easy to get lost in the big version. I'm researching galaxies just like this (but too far away for such pretty pictures!) at the Spitzer Science Center at the moment, and this is a very nice reminder of why I put in hours trying to get the damn software to work today. Thanks for posting.
Glad you all enjoyed it, and Adam, you do interesting work! It's good to remind ourselves of the lofty things once in awhile.