Friday, April 23, 2010

Awesome visions

It's the 20th anniversary of the Hubble telescope. So, the featured images tonight are from Hubble. This photo is Stephan's Quintet, a group of galaxies located in the constellation Pegasus.


This is the Cat's Eye Nebula, and from Hubble's site: "One of the first planetary nebulae discovered, it also has one of the most complex forms known to this kind of nebula. Eleven rings, or shells, of gas make up the nebula. The Cat's Eye Nebula is about 1,000 years old, and could have resulted from a double-star system."

To see more fantastic images, click here to visit Hubble's website.


Astronomy compels the soul to look upward, and leads us from this world to another.
— Plato, The Republic, 342 BC

When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.
— Kalpana Chawla

The treasures hidden in the heavens are so rich that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh nourishment.
— Johannes Kepler

2 comments:

Katie said...

These and the other Hubble photos are really quite spectacular. So many amazing things to see in the sky. Hard to believe it's Hubble's 20th Birthday though. Don't they grow up fast!

Ms M said...

It IS amazing that Hubble's 20 years old! I love looking through the images, especially of the nebulae.
So, let's break out some good wine and toast to Hubble and spectacular photos of deep space!