Slashdot Mirror
Hubble Takes Amazing New Images of Andromeda, Pillars of Creation
The Hubble Space Telescope was launched in April, 1990. In 1995, it presented us with one of its most iconic images: a close-up of gas pillars in the Eagle Nebula, dubbed the "Pillars of Creation." Now, as HST approaches its 25th anniversary, astronomers have re-shot the pillars at a much higher resolution. Here are direct images links: visible light, comparison with old image, near-infrared light. "The infrared view transforms the pillars into eerie, wispy silhouettes seen against a background of myriad stars. That's because the infrared light penetrates much of the gas and dust, except for the densest regions of the pillars. Newborn stars can be seen hidden away inside the pillars."
That's not the only new image from Hubble today: NASA has also released the most high definition view of the Andromeda Galaxy that we've ever seen. Here's a web-friendly image, but that doesn't really do it justice. The full image is 69,536 px by 22,230 px. To see Andromeda in all its glory, visit the ESA's dedicated, zoomable site that contains all the image data. At the highest zoom levels, you can make out a mind-blowing number of individual stars. Andromeda is over 2 million light-years distant.
That's not the only new image from Hubble today: NASA has also released the most high definition view of the Andromeda Galaxy that we've ever seen. Here's a web-friendly image, but that doesn't really do it justice. The full image is 69,536 px by 22,230 px. To see Andromeda in all its glory, visit the ESA's dedicated, zoomable site that contains all the image data. At the highest zoom levels, you can make out a mind-blowing number of individual stars. Andromeda is over 2 million light-years distant.
On the pillars comparison image, if you cross your eyes to superimpose the old image over the new image you'll see a pretty cool 3D effect. Not sure if it's something in my imagination or if the stellar motion over 20 years gives us two slightly different view of the pillars to create a kind of stereo image.
These images demonstrate that the Hubble is a national (if not international) treasure. With two U.S. rockets soon capable of delivering astronauts to LEO, there must be some way to perform some type of minimal maintenance mission to the Hubble so it can continue its mission beyond the current EOL deadline. With no suitable visible light replacement telescope on the horizon, dumping the telescope into the ocean will be a crime. This would be a marvelous opportunity for someone like Elon Musk or the executives at Boeing to step up and lobby the government to be allowed to put together such a mission.
Stars... If you pan around the outskirts of the image you will see that the density drops off defining the shape of the galaxy.
...somewhere 2 million lightyears away in the Andromeda galaxy a nerd zooming into a similar high resolution image of the Milky Way galaxy, seeing a faint yellow smudge no larger than a pixel and wondering if it's a star or noise in the image.
Go outside and download the image at the resolution you want.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
The full image is 69,536 px by 22,230 px
Who said the megapixel war was over?
This seemed like a reasonable sig at the time.
The sheer number of stars in the Andromeda photo is humbling. While panning through it, the thought struck me that perhaps around one of those stars exists a planet with intelligent life that might also be looking at a high res image of the Milky Way and be thinking the same thing about them.
Looks like the pillars have a leading edge with debris trailing off. What set something that massive, with that shape, in motion? And where is it going?
Here
Gotta give credit to NASA. They made a 25 year old space telescope that is still better than anything that anyone else has.
That's the amazing thing about this image - from a low zoom level it looks like CCD shot noise. Then you realise that the zoom slider is fully out and you can go in.. and in.. and in.. until you see that the noise isn't noise, it's actually all stars. You can verify this by panning to the edge of the frame where the galaxy is far less dense and you can see stars with the (low noise) darkness of the universe behind them.