Astronomy Picture of the Day -- NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda

NASA ^ | October 24, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: The large stellar association cataloged as NGC 206 is nestled within the dusty arms of neighboring spiral galaxy Andromeda (M31), 2.5 million light-years distant. Seen near the center of this gorgeous close-up of the southwestern extent of Andromeda's disk, the bright, blue stars of NGC 206 indicate its youth. Its youngest massive stars are less than 10 million years old. Much larger than the clusters of young stars in the disk of our Milky Way galaxy known as open or galactic clusters, NGC 206 spans about 4,000 light-years. That's comparable in size to the giant stellar nurseries NGC 604 in nearby spiral M33 and the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.

[SunkenCiv]

[Credit & Copyright: Bob and Janice Fera (Fera Photography)]

[SunkenCiv]

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[hope_dies_last]

Breathtaking... And a reminder of how small we truly are.
To God be the glory.

This was no accident.

[cripplecreek]

I found this story kind of interesting. I'm guessing it was little more than an attempt to manipulate the facts to make us invisible sky God Believers sound like a bunch of ignorant rubes.

Spaced Out: Majority of Gen X Can't Identify Home Galaxy

Miller is the director of the Longitudinal Study of American Youth at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research. Beginning in 1986, with funding from the National Science Foundation, scientists have collected data about the lives and knowledge of Generation X.

In the latest installment of the study, Miller showed participants a Hubble Space Telescope image of a spiral galaxy and asked them to identify the picture. The participants were asked to identify the image first in an open-ended question and then in a multiple-choice setup. [Infographic: Our Milky Way Galaxy]

Just 43 percent of participants gave an answer saying the image represented a galaxy like our own. And men had a leg up, with 53 percent of males and 32 percent of females nailing their cosmic location to some degree. Those with less than a high-school education fared the worst, with just 21 percent knowing our cosmic address, compared with 63 percent of those with doctorates or professional degrees who said the same.

"One of the factors that contributes to this educational difference is exposure to college-level science courses," Miller said. "The United States is unique in its requirement that all college students complete one year of college science courses as part of a general education requirement."

I'm just an ignern't hillbilly dropout who thinks them lights painted on the roof of the world shore is purty.

[left that other site]

Awesome!

Thank You, Sunken Civ, for posting these. :-)

[DeoVindiceSicSemperTyrannis]

so beautiful

[TheOldLady]

Good morning, Civ! Great job as usual. I love blue stars. They’re hot and young. ;-P

And they’re my favorite color.

[Conan the Librarian]

This past weekend, our local club did a viewing for the public and this was one of my objects to show.

But, it looked nothing like that!

Keep an eye on the local events and if you see your local astronomy club having an even, try to go. They are lots of fun and you might just see something new.

[Young Werther]

Our National Space Society is meeting at UT Arlington for Astronomy day on Nov1, 2012. We will look up at all that God Reveals.

It is Earie to behold!