Astronomy Picture for Today(It is not a drawing!)

nasa ^ | 01/16/2006 | DG

[HOTTIEBOY]

The Sombrero Galaxy from HST
Credit: Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI /NASA)

Explanation: Why does the Sombrero Galaxy look like a hat? Reasons include the Sombrero's unusually large and extended central bulge of stars, and dark prominent dust lanes that appear in a disk that we see nearly edge-on. Billions of old stars cause the diffuse glow of the extended central bulge. Close inspection of the bulge in the above photograph shows many points of light that are actually globular clusters. M104's spectacular dust rings harbor many younger and brighter stars, and show intricate details astronomers don't yet fully understand. The very center of the Sombrero glows across the electromagnetic spectrum, and is thought to house a large black hole. Fifty million-year-old light from the Sombrero Galaxy can be seen with a small telescope towards the constellation of Virgo.

[HOTTIEBOY]

I caught it WCS...and your tagline is one of my favorite Nicholson characters.

[Woman on Caroline Street]

I always cringed at the notion that they were using a dull butter knife to perform the removal.

[A Jovial Cad]

But my comment was in reference to a Monty Python bit in case you're wondering

Ah, thanks for explaining. I've never seen any of the Monty Python movies, so I didn't understand the context, thought it was some kind of puzzling snark.

Well, AJC, with the day I'm having, I wouldn't mind a nip from the ole flask

Hope your day gets better.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

BTTT - very cool!

[HOTTIEBOY]

I had to press 2 for english today! 2!
English was the second choice!

[RightWhale]

There are 100 billion neurons in the human brain.

There are 100 billion stars in the Milky Way.

There are 100 billion galaxies in the Hubble volume.

There are 100 billion Hubble volumes in the entire universe.

Maybe not exactly, but the orders of magnitude are close.

[marmar]

Thanks.....reminds me of how big God is and how small I am. Prayers for you and your neighbors.......

[Cedar]

Great photo.

Reminds me of the song...

"O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder consider all the worlds Thy hands have made...."

[Mike Darancette]

WOW, now that's an intelligent design.

[JCEccles]

Our miniscule planet is filled with life and intelligence. Unless the Sombrero Galaxy has a similar planet, as lovely as the Sombrero Galaxy is, our miniscule planet is incomparably more glorious and significant.

[A Jovial Cad]

I was simply expressing awe at the beauty of God's universe, and our relatively (in cosmic terms) minor role in it. It wasn't a sermon.

It's amazing the offense some folks will take over the most innocuous observation.