Hubble Neatly Captures Messier's Ancient Stars

New submitter DevotedSkeptic writes "Hubble has produced a crisp image of the Messier 56 Globular Cluster. Messier originally noted that this object was nebula without stars. When he originally viewed the cluster in 1779, telescopes were not powerful enough to see more than a fuzzy ball. The crisp focused view we get from Hubble enables us to easily see the globular cluster and ancient stars contained within. Comparing observations from Hubble with results from the standard theory of stellar evolution, scientists have calculated the age Messier 56 at 13 billion years."

Comments

its

[Anonymous Coward]

its full of stars

Re:its

[Crosshair84]

Please explain and demonstrate how you get life from non-life. Until biologists get to that point, your view is nothing more than blind faith. You don't know, I don't know, but what we DO know about life is that even its simplest forms is mind boggling complex. Hundreds of thousands of computer code base pairs in even the simplest single celled organism and no realistic theory as to how it got there in the first place. (No, chance is NOT an explanation. "The Monkeys typing Shakespeare theorem" has shown to not be possible. There is neither enough time or enough matter in the universe to go through even a fraction of the possibilities.)

All life on this planet we have found thus far is carbon based. No alternate biochemistry has been shown to be even theoretically realistic
All carbon based life we have found thus far requires liquid water in some form or another. This makes life impossible in the vast majority of the universe.
Most star systems either lack the heavy elements necessary for life (too far from the galactic core) or have too much ionizing radiation for life to survive (too close to the galactic core.)
Most star systems are binary, no life there as stable orbits are not realistically possible.
etc.

The sad fact is that a hundred trillion times zero is still zero.

Could there be life on other planets? Sure. There could also be a monolith in orbit around Jupiter. Given the evidence we do have about life, it's complexities, and limits, one should be skeptical about the possibility of life outside of Earths atmosphere until that evidence of its existence is shown.

The Day we Found the Universe

[esldude]

http://www.amazon.com/The-Day-We-Found-Universe/dp/0307276600/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345962369&sr=8-1&keywords=the+day+we+discovered+the+universe#reader_0307276600 Delightful book about how we came to figure out there was more than the milky way, and just how much more. Details the history of the instruments used, the scientists involved and the ideas that battled it out until we understood how big things were. The Hubble is in the lineage of important instruments helping us learn how big all of space is. All the way back to 13 billion years or so of it.

Lessons for editors, #402

[wonkey_monkey]

"Hubble has produced a crisp image of the Messier 56 Globular Cluster. Messier originally noted that this object was a nebula without stars. When he originally viewed the cluster in 1779, telescopes were not powerful enough to see more than a fuzzy ball. The crisp focused view we get from Hubble enables us to easily see the globular cluster and the ancient stars contained within. Comparing observations from Hubble with results from the standard theory of stellar evolution, scientists have calculated the age of Messier 56 at 13 billion years."

And this was an easy one.

Uhm, yes. Over 7 billion that we know of.

[VortexCortex]

I wonder if there is a God of Gods?

Or do you? A question only you can answer...

And do the Gods go around killing each other in the name of themselves?

Yes.

And are there Gods who don't believe in Gods?

Yes.

What would those be called?

On this planet they're known as Humans, regardless of whether they believe in themselves.

How does Mitt Romney fit in this?

The Universe is really big; Yes, large enough for even his ego. The planet on the other hand...

Can be find a way?

No, "be" isn't a proper subject.

And if Romney becomes God, and he dies (Gods die?), does that mean Ryan becomes a God?

Woah, slow down. Of course gods die. Even the mythical ones have been dying ever since we started dreaming them up. See also: Greek Mythology.

When a god dies it doesn't spawn a new god, otherwise that "When Animals Attack" show would have an ending more like "Planet of the Apes".

My God, the guy is barely out of diapers! And what of George Burns?

I'm pretty sure "My God" implies slavery... George Burns was the best God, IMO.