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Java Powers of Ten
WeeMan writes "Remember that cool video/film you might have seen in your high school science class "Powers of Ten"? Well Florida State University (FSU) has their own well done Java version of Powers of Ten. For those who have not seen it, basically it's a continuous zooming in of images by powers of ten, starting with galactic superclusters/walls and ending at the quantum scale. The FSU site also has some cool close up images of many chip designs here, Java virtual microscopy there, and plenty of other cool applets and microscopy images (like microscopic images of beer from around the world : )"
The Power of Ten video is the work of the late artists Charles and Ray Eames. It is available from the Eames Office.
The absolute resolution of any optical system, be it a common microscope, or a super yet to be invented CCD, is limited to half the wavelength of the visible light being used. Obviously deep violet light gives the maximum resolution. The electron microscope was a fantastic breakthrough because it could discern features much smaller than half the wavelength of violet light. That also explains why pictures taken with an electron microscope are always black and white (or colorized): there is no actual "light" there at all to give the object color. Below a certain size, color is impossible.
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Here's a page giving the simple formulas, as well as an automatic calculator:
http://www.microscopyu.com/tutorials/flash/pixe
Funny thing is, we don't really know what the milky way looks like from a distance. For the most part we make assumptions based on the structure of our galaxy compared to others that we CAN see. However, there is still much a lot of leeway in how the actual shape might turn out to be someday when technology is capable of making a more accurate ascertation.
Also, don't forget, but we can only see a fraction of our own galaxy, and a large swath of the universe can't be observed either since our own galaxy is so dense that the center of the galaxy blocks our view to the other side. Its only pure luck that we're located so close to the edge of the galaxy that we're able to see out at all.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
But last I read, the Milky Way was thought to be a bared spiral.
This guy, these guys, and most convincingly, these guys, seem to all agree.
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
Short answer: We don't
Long answer: Would you really know if they were 'faking' it or not? They probably used images of other galaxies in substitution for our own.
"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge"
- Charles Darwin
OK, but let's credit the person who, I think, really originated the idea. When I was a kid, I was given a wonderful book called "Cosmic View: The Universe in Forty Jumps," by a Dutch schoolteacher named Kees Boeke. It was all drawings, with that wonderful Dutch surrealistic sense of humor--it is centered on a school courtyard in The Netherlands, which just happens to have a dead whale lying in it.
It came out in 1957.
There's really no question, the Eames movie and Morrison book are a "remake" of "Cosmic View." The film and book explicitly give credit to Boeke.
To my astonishment, I find that the book is available online at
http://www.vendian.org/mncharity/cosmicview/
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!