November 09, 2005

How Cool Is This?

Creation.jpg

The Mountains of Creation. I love both the image and the name.

The image, dubbed the Mountains of Creation by astronomers, reveals hotbeds of star formation similar to the iconic Pillars of Creation within the Eagle Nebula, photographed in 1995 by the Hubble Space Telescope.

In both cases, the finger-like features are cool clouds of gas and dust that have been sculpted by radiation and fast-moving winds of charged particles from hot, massive stars.

Spitzer records heat, or infrared light, which penetrates the dusty clouds and allows a view of the star birth inside. In the largest finger, hundreds of embryonic stars not seen before are revealed. Dozens of stars-to-be are visible in one of the other fingers.

On a related note, I was trying to give the seven year old some concept of interstellar distances the other evening, but I don't think she's old enough to really grasp them yet. This looks like a job for the Total Perspective Vortex.

Posted by Robert at November 9, 2005 02:59 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Somebody needs to make a wallpaper-sized version of this...

Posted by: TheRoyalFamily at November 9, 2005 03:29 PM

Yes, I was hunting around on the NASA website looking for a bigger pic but couldn't find one.

Posted by: Robbo the LB at November 9, 2005 03:38 PM

You probably already know about this, but I'd definitely recommend the book Powers of Ten. It blew me away when I was a kid, and I speak from experience when I say it still does the job on these modern punks.

Posted by: utron at November 9, 2005 04:00 PM


Glad you like our Spitzer image.

You can download a high-resolution version of this image
from the Spitzer Science Center at:

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2005-23/ssc2005-23a.shtml

And see the full release at:
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2005-23/release.shtml


Posted by: Lori at November 11, 2005 03:24 PM