The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies
Credit & Copyright: Jean-Charles Cuillandre (CFHT) & Giovanni Anselmi (Coelum Astronomia), Hawaiian Starlight
Posted on 05/20/2008 2:49:39 PM PDT by sig226
Explanation: Here is one of the largest objects that anyone will ever see on the sky. Each of these fuzzy blobs is a galaxy, together making up the Perseus Cluster, one of the closest clusters of galaxies. The cluster is seen through a foreground of faint stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy. Near the cluster center, roughly 250 million light-years away, is the cluster's dominant galaxy NGC 1275, seen above as the large galaxy on the image left. A prodigious source of x-rays and radio emission, NGC 1275 accretes matter as gas and galaxies fall into it. The Perseus Cluster of Galaxies is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster spanning over 15 degrees and containing over 1,000 galaxies. At the distance of NGC 1275, this view covers about 7.5 million light-years.
I didn’t even take a breath when looking at that. Absolutely stunning
stuning indeed,, imagining the scale alone is pretty tough... what a cosmos!
“There more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreampt of in your philosophy”
Cool! I’m a photographer myself. I don’t know much about the cosmos but I know a great picture when I see one.
If we started driving right now we could beat the traffic jam, but you just know someone will have to stop after a lousy 125 million light years to find a rest room...
Just looking at that, I cannot accept that we are the only viewers of it.
You know that after 150 million light years, you wife would be saying , “ Honey, just stop and ask someone where Regulus is.”
You’d then reply,” OH let’s just go another million miles, I know it’s right around here, I was in the Space Scouts, remember?”
Agreed because I am certainly not worthy of witnessing such beauty and scale.
Indeed.
Billions of Galaxies containing billions of stars; God loves life; we can't be alone in all the cosmos.
Absolutely beautiful!!!!!
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