A portrait of creative chaos, yet so zen – at least from 6,500 light-years away 😉 • NASA > APOD > Pillars of Creation (2022 October 20) Explanation: A now famous picture from the Hubble Space Telescope featured these star forming columns of cold gas and dust light-years long inside M16, the Eagle Nebula, dubbed… Continue reading JWST’s Pillars of Creation – a star hatchery
[“Our Milky Way” series] Years in the works. The announcement had been anticipated for awhile. The big news was released today: First image of Black Hole at the center of our galaxy. Heart of the Milky Way, eh. This is about more than synthesizing an image from photos taken by “telescopes on high mountaintops” positioned… Continue reading A ringed darkness at our Milky Way’s center – EHT images Sagittarius A*
Advances in all-sky surveys permit better visualization of the motions and dynamics inside our galaxy. And provide a better understanding of the evolution of the Milky Way. X-ray all-sky surveys As noted in this Space.com article, while “optical telescopes are much easier to design than X-ray telescopes … some of the most interesting objects in… Continue reading All-sky surveys – visualizing our dynamic galaxy
When not merely obscured in our field of view, things which we cannot see – that are essentially invisible – often may be either impossibly distant or impossibly small (among other factors). That’s why we have telescopes and microscopes. At cosmic scales, imaging a black hole was like seeing something spanning “the size of a period… Continue reading Imaging atoms – seeing the impossibly small
My holiday card this year in the cosmic greetings, Santa-in-Space series. In the bubble … at various scales … Notes • Space.com > “NORAD tracks Santa Claus in cosmic trip to the International Space Station” by Tariq Malik (December 24, 2020) • YouTube > NORAD > Analytical Graphics > “NTS 2020 ISS” (Dec 21, 2020)… Continue reading Cosmic greetings – Santa-in-Space – in the bubble
So, occasionally I run across articles which mention quantum dots; but more frequently I notice this technology promoted in higher quality flat screen displays and TVs. Photo-luminescent nanotechnology. This Phys.org article (below) reminds me that the technology is critical in quantum information processing, e.g., quantum computing. And as Wiki notes, modeling quantum dots showcases the… Continue reading Quantum dots – not just for TVs
The daily grind. Global threats. Political chaos. The coronavirus … Perhaps a calming meditation? Our shared place in the cosmos, our ‘Pale Blue Dot’ – a tiny blue speck shining in space. Notes Space.com > “‘Pale Blue Dot’ shines anew in Carl Sagan Institute video to mark iconic photo’s 30th anniversary” by Chelsea Gohd (February… Continue reading Our ‘Pale Blue Dot’ – a meditation
As noted in my post on X-rays, looking beyond what our eyes can see – seeing what is hidden to visible light – tells a better cosmic story. Multi-wavelength observations refine and extend our view of the universe beyond our familiar vision. So, today we celebrate the Spitzer space telescope, one of NASA’s great space… Continue reading Celebrating Spitzer space telescope – seeing the invisible for 16 years
Imagine a grain of fine beach sand. What’s its size? Classification scales vary, but let’s say less than a tenth (0.1) of a millmeter (mm). A grain of table salt. Same question. Maybe ~0.3 mm. In either grain there are a gazillion molecules. Now imagine something a thousand (1000) times smaller – a micrometer-sized grain.… Continue reading Tiny grains tell a stellar story
Who would have expected the Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) to still be in operation after being launched into low Earth orbit in 1990? So, NASA/ESA kickstarted its 30th anniversary with some majestic galactic photos. Wiki: Five Space Shuttle missions have repaired, upgraded, and replaced systems on the telescope, including… Continue reading Celebrating Hubble – 30th anniversary year
