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Herschel Releases First Images of Milky Way

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the searching-for-moties dept.

davecl writes "The Herschel space observatory has just released stunning five-color images of a section of our own galaxy, showing the complex twisted structures of the interstellar medium that drive star and planet formation. The images are the first produced using two of Herschel's instruments, SPIRE and PACS, simultaneously and show the power of this approach. This image is just 2x2 degrees in size, but future Herschel programs will image the entire galactic plane at this sensitivity and resolution. Full scale science operations with Herschel begin in just a few weeks. More information on the project can be found from the ESA, the mission blog (which I contribute to) and from the SPIRE instrument team. The BBC is also covering this story."

15 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. In case of Slashdot, serve cache. by palegray.net · · Score: 4, Funny

    There's a cached version of one of the pictures here: color Milky Way image.

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    1. Re:In case of Slashdot, serve cache. by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

      You got that link wrong, butterfingers.

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    2. Re:In case of Slashdot, serve cache. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Funny

      Reminds me of water on Mars.

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    3. Re:In case of Slashdot, serve cache. by clone53421 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The best part is that it's actually a real Astronomy Picture of the Day from NASA.gov.

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  2. Herschel by mcgrew · · Score: 2, Funny

    The Herschel space observatory has just released stunning five colour images of a section of our own Milkey Way galaxy showing the complex twisted structures of the interstellar medium that drive star and planet formation

    I wanted to open a bar named after the astronomer this telescope is named after, and a chocolate company sued me. Then Mars filed suit too, saying they owned the Milky Way.

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  3. Awesome pictures, but... by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    FTFA: What is striking in the image is how impressive the colour-coding allows us to differentiate material that is extremely cold (red) from that which is warmer.

    I don't mean to take anything away from the great work you guys are doing, but wouldn't it make sense to color code these things in a way that the warmer areas were red? It would jive better with our existing preconceptions.

    1. Re:Awesome pictures, but... by mujadaddy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Apparently you don't know anything about stars. Red ones are cool, Blue ones are hot.

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    2. Re:Awesome pictures, but... by mujadaddy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I didn't miss the point at all. People know that a white hot iron is hotter than a red hot one. Using the color scheme that is more accurate is an educational service. Why do you want to promote ignorance?

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  4. Am I the only one... by Evil+Shabazz · · Score: 3, Funny

    ... who first read this headline as, "Hershey Releases First Images of Milky Way" and wondered what was so interesting about a new candy bar?

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    1. Re:Am I the only one... by steelfood · · Score: 2, Funny

      I was actually curious as to when Hershey acquired Mars.

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  5. Well, I learned something today by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Informative

    So, I thought the Milky Way visible in the sky at night was made up of stars you can resolve individually and stars you can't resolve individually. Apparently it's also made up of gas and dust that reflects the star light.

    +1 intarwebs.

    And since I'm commenting, this graphic from Wikipedia is among the most awesome I've seen:

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/Universe_Reference_Map_(Location)_001.jpeg

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    1. Re:Well, I learned something today by melikamp · · Score: 3, Informative

      Yes yes. And another good one is this logarithmic map of the Universe [PostScript], , other formats.

    2. Re:Well, I learned something today by MMatessa · · Score: 2, Funny

      ...and another good one is this cartoon logarithmic map of the Universe.

  6. why 70 and 160um? by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What's with the choices for emission? are they common spectra for hydrogen or something?

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    1. Re:why 70 and 160um? by davecl · · Score: 4, Informative

      In these images you're largely seeing thermal emission from dust at temperatures of about 20-50K. The wavebands chosen cover the peak of the black body spectrum at these temperatures so we can get an accurate measure of how warm of cold the dust is.