Posted on 02/05/2014 6:26:08 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: Does spiral galaxy NGC 2683 have a bar across its center? Being so nearly like our own barred Milky Way Galaxy, one might guess it has. Being so nearly edge-on, however, it is hard to tell. Either way, this gorgeous island universe, cataloged as NGC 2683, lies a mere 20 million light-years distant in the northern constellation of the Cat (Lynx). NGC 2683 is seen nearly edge-on in this cosmic vista combining data and images from the ground-based Subaru telescope and the space-based Hubble Space Telescope. More distant galaxies are seen scattered in the background. Blended light from a large population of old yellowish stars forms the remarkably bright galactic core. Starlight silhouettes the dust lanes along winding spiral arms, dotted with the telltale blue glow of young star clusters in this galaxy's star forming regions.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Image Credit: Subaru Telescope (NAOJ), Hubble Space Telescope; Image Assembly, Processing, & Copyright: Robert Gendler]
face to face with the imponderable
This place has a bar? Beam me down, Scotty.
“In this galaxy’s star forming regions”
Should we be looking at those regions? Are these astronomers peeking up skirts again?
All those stars are in our galaxy.
That big galaxy is floating on its own, surrunded only by space.
And then that smaller galaxy is just as big in actuality, and floating on its own in space.
And the Milky Way is floating next to those two, and all three are surrounded in the utter blackness of space.
But Hubble has shown that there are so many galaxies, that taken from a wide view, they look like stars.
Just a reminder, because as everyone knows, this planet, alone, in the universe, has life.
: )
Maybe we are the first!
To me, what blows my mind are all the distant galaxies to be seen in these super sharp photos. It boggles the mind to ponder what might be out there, never to be known by man.
Even more imponderable, considering the time elapsed traveling here, what races/species may have flourished and vanished during that time.
I always liked that design.
;’)
“Heaven and earth are large, yet in the whole of space they are but as a small grain of rice. How unreasonable it would be to suppose that, besides the heaven and earth which we can see, there are no other heavens and no other earths.” — Teng Mu
Wait, this is the version I was looking for:
“Empty space is like a kingdom, and earth and sky are no more than a single individual person in that kingdom. Upon one tree are many fruits, and in one kingdom there are many people. How unreasonable it would be to suppose that, besides the earth and the sky which we can see, there are no other skies and no other earths.” — Teng Mu, a Chinese scholar of the Sung Dynasty (960 — 1280 A.D.)
This is not the bar you're looking for.
NGC 2683 is 25 ± 4 million light-years away with diameter of 38,500 light-years.
The Milky Way diameter is 100,000 to 120,000 LY and contains 100 - 400 x 10^9 stars. So NGC 2683 must have maybe 10 Billion stars in it. The numbers are just staggering.
Beautiful. I never heard that quote before. But it reminds me of Jesus saying “My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you?” (John 14:2)
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