Hubble Space Telescope

[Pete]

I watched a show tonight on the Hubble.  One thing really left me in awe, and that's the below image.  It's called the Hubble Deep Field image, basically they took a series of images of the same spot in space (which looked empty) over a period of 6 days.  Below is what showed up.  Every point of light is an actual galaxy.  Kind of puts into perspective how small we really are.  Amazing.  This is a big image so expand it for more detail.

http://z-e-r-o.up.seesaa.net/image/Hubble_Ultra_Deep_Field_Black_point_edit.jpg

[Heather]

thats freaking neat!

[BC]

I was doing a thing for a while helping classify galaxies.  www.galaxyzoo.org  They have this sky survey of billions of galaxies, but the computer software has a problem to determine the difference in what type galaxy sometimes.  They want to classify what type galaxies are out there in an effort to see if there is some pattern- that if there are more elliptical galaxies versus spiral galaxies in certain areas and why.  They figured if they had people across the world helping do it, they could actually get enough done to start making sense of it.  I did a couple thousand in my free time here and there and some of them were rather boring blobs, but every once in awhile you'd get an amazing spiral galaxy.

[Pete]

they were also talking about dark matter and how it helps to hold galaxies and clusters of galaxies together.  Yet when you combine the mass of matter and dark matter, it still leaves 2/3 of the mass of the universe un-accounted for.  How they know that I have no idea though     Just shows how 'smart' we really are.


Here is another Hubble picture I thought was cool.  They are gas pillars in the Eagle Nebula, I think they said they were several thousand light years long.  You can see the little globules coming off of them, they are actually stars being born.  If you look close, you can see light starting to come out of a couple of them.

[ClintusMaximus]

And we're apparently the only intelligent life, period?  Doesn't seem conceivable, does it?  The vastness of space is something else.  What's at the end?  Nothing?  That can't be... ah my head hurts!

Great find Pete. 

[Pete]

And we're apparently the only intelligent life, period?  Doesn't seem conceivable, does it?  The vastness of space is something else.  What's at the end?  Nothing?  That can't be... ah my head hurts!

Great find Pete. 

IMO anybody who thinks we are the only life out there is really kidding themselves.

[Heather]

IMO anybody who thinks we are the only life out there is really kidding themselves.

I completely agree. Theres no way we are the only ones out there.

[ClintusMaximus]

IMO anybody who thinks we are the only life out there is really kidding themselves.

I completely agree. Theres no way we are the only ones out there.

Heather, you're prove of other beings.

[Heather]

 

[Pete]

yes Heather, you are prove.   

[ClintusMaximus]

yes Heather, you are prove.   

I suck again!  PROOF DAMNIT, PROOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[ELake]

You can speculate about it, but the only way of really knowing is to explore it, but since the distances are so far away it is something we will probably never know...unless we build a rocket faster than the speed of light

[Pete]

You can speculate about it, but the only way of really knowing is to explore it, but since the distances are so far away it is something we will probably never know...unless we build a rocket faster than the speed of light

we may never know, but our children or grandchildren may.  I get pissed when people bitch about the money spent in space exploration until you consider everything its given us. 

[Heather]

You can speculate about it, but the only way of really knowing is to explore it, but since the distances are so far away it is something we will probably never know...unless we build a rocket faster than the speed of light

we may never know, but our children or grandchildren may.  I get pissed when people bitch about the money spent in space exploration until you consider everything its given us. 

Keeps Big G in a job too! Im all for NASA!!!

[Ben]

I watched a show tonight on the Hubble.  One thing really left me in awe, and that's the below image.  It's called the Hubble Deep Field image, basically they took a series of images of the same spot in space (which looked empty) over a period of 6 days.  Below is what showed up.  Every point of light is an actual galaxy.  Kind of puts into perspective how small we really are.  Amazing.  This is a big image so expand it for more detail.

http://z-e-r-o.up.seesaa.net/image/Hubble_Ultra_Deep_Field_Black_point_edit.jpg

Ive seen that and the pillars of life pics before, the coolest things ever. As much as the media loved to try and portray the Hubble as a failure so they could create a news story, its one of the most valuable tools they have and has surpassed their expectations, once it was fixed. Me personally, if you take one of the most fragile and precise instruments on the earth and strap it to a giant rocket and light a bomb off underneath it and fly it miles into the sky, if its even in one piece or turns on once it gets there thats an achievement. Ive seen shows with what they have to go through to maintain the mirrors in the telescopes of the observatories here on earth, I have no idea how they managed to get Hubble to work and stay working