Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 October 4 
Posted on 10/04/2016 5:08:33 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 October 4
Explanation: What surrounds the famous Eagle Nebula? The inside of the Eagle Nebula contains eggs -- evaporating gaseous globules -- that typically reside in tremendous pillars of gas and dust and where stars form. This image, though, dramatically captures the area surrounding the Eagle Nebula, showing not only the entire Eagle shape, but also enormous volumes of glowing gas and dark dust. Cataloged as M16, the Eagle emission nebula lies about 6,500 light years away and is visible with binoculars toward the constellation of the Serpent (Serpens). The image spans about 80 light years around the nebula. The iconic center of the Eagle Nebula has been the focus of many observational efforts both from the ground and orbiting observatories.
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
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The famous “Screaming Eagles” was the 101st ABN Division. They went Air Mobile in the seventies or eighties. My dad was in both the 101 and the 82nd for a time.
They were the bravest of men for sure. I loved the “Band of Brothers” mini series. Have seen it a dozen times through.
For anyone who doesn't know, a light-year, the DISTANCE light travels in a year at its fixed speed of 186,000 miles per SECOND, works out to about 5.9 TRILLION miles.
In other words, 6,500 light years is a long friggin way away!
The thing I loved about Winters was how he always got his men through. Attacking machine gun nests on D Day, etc. Keep your head, stick to the script, drive on. Incredible leader. He just demonstrated again and again how it can be done. Just incredible and all true. To me, the whole story was about him and what one could accomplish with integrity and courage. His story should be mandatory for every high school kid.
It looks like a Mesopotamian queen kissing a jewel.
We think of the distance between stars as being incredible but what of the distance between galaxies? To become travelers among planets is our current goal. We have some serious steps to take to get to the next two steps.
The wife and I just finished the third Cixin Liu book, “Deat’s End”. Fantastic ideas. Dark Forrest was incredible and food for serious thought as we move forward and take these “baby steps” in becoming an InterStellar Civilization. It is a serious answer to the question, “If they are out there, where are they?”
And there are galaxies known to reside 12+ *billion* (1,000 times a million) light years from Earth, again, one light year being approximately 5.9 TRILLION miles!
That's 12+ billion times 5.9 trillion...miles.
"Ceterum censeo Hillary esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
It is a great example of the winner not being determined by the side with better weapons or better whatever. The winner is frequently the side that doesn’t panic and this is probably the most important determinant.
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