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Astronomers Select Top Ten Most Amazing Pictures Taken by Hubble Space Telescope in Last 16 Years
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| 21 April 2009
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Posted on 04/21/2009 8:56:10 AM PDT by COBOL2Java
Hubble telescopes top ten greatest space photographs
they illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful. Michael Hanlon/AH (Nov 25th, 2006) After correcting an initial problem with the lens, when the Hubble Space Telescope was first launched in 1990, the floating astro-observatory began to relay back to Earth, incredible snapshots of the final frontier it was perusing. Recently, astronauts voted on the top photographs taken by Hubble, in its 16-year journey so far. Remarking in the article from the Daily Mail, reporter Michael Hanlon says the photos illustrate that our universe is not only deeply strange, but also almost impossibly beautiful.
- The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

- The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.

- Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.

- Cats Eye Nebula

- The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.

- Cone Nebula. The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length (the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon)

- The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements.

- Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

- The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.

- The Trifid Nebula. A stellar nursery, 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.

TOPICS: Arts/Photography; Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: hubble
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To: divine_moment_of_facts
I’d probably tear up if I saw that in person.
41
posted on
04/21/2009 12:53:41 PM PDT
by
wastedyears
(April 21st, 2009 - International Iron Maiden Day)
To: TheMom
42
posted on
04/21/2009 1:03:25 PM PDT
by
Eaker
(The Two Loudest Sounds in the World.....Bang When it should have been Click and the Reverse.)
To: never4get
I may die tonight, in a blaze of glory or in a freak accident or simply in my sleep, but the fact remains that there’ll never be another me.
43
posted on
04/21/2009 5:56:52 PM PDT
by
JoJo Gunn
(Stop the pirates in Washington D.C.)
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