Friday, August 7, 2009

Cosmic Creature Of The Night


P L E A S E C L I C K !!!
Look what NASA'a Spitzer Space Telescope brought in for us: a coiled creature called NGC 1097 and spiraled, like our Milky Way galaxy. This is 50 MILLION light years away.

Those long, spindly "arms" are all stars and look at the center, at the "eye". That's a monstrous BLACK HOLE surrounded by a ring of stars. In this color-coded infrared view from Spitzer, the area around the black hole is blue, the stars are white.

This black hole is truly a monster - 100 MILLION TIMES THE MASS OF OUR SUN. It feeds of
f gas and dust, and the occasional unlucky star. Our Milky Way's central black hole is quite tame in comparison, with only a few million suns, or stars.

The ring around the black hole is BURSTING with new star formations. Other dots in the picture are stars from our galaxy or other distant ones. LIFE!! Explosive eh?


21 comments:

Jeannette said...

It is so beautiful!

Coelha :B said...

Incredible and beautiful! Who knows what/who is out there! Julie

Martha said...

How awesome!

robert said...

Read that these black holes are even able to 'suck in light', which hopefully will make them bright, allowing them to see the wonders of life.
Thank you for sharing this image.
Made my night bright.

Ana said...

This is really great!
I just do not understand why do they name with letters and numbers.
"NGC 1097" sounds so strange!
I think they lost the ability of being a little bit poetic when dealing with the space.

Joann said...

That's amazing!! Thanks for posting this!!

BALLET NEWS said...

Hi - just wanted to stop by and say how much I'm enjoying your blog - thank you !

GYPSYWOMAN said...

hi cathy - i'm only just now discovering your place which i found after having read your comment yesterday/today at robert's blog - i left you a brief note there to express how grateful i was for the words you posted - and then decided to just jump over here to say hello - love your blog - very interesting - please feel free to drop by any of my places at your leisure - we seem to share a few common interests - in the meantime, have a glorious day! jenean

Kathy said...

Beautiful!

GYPSYWOMAN said...

hi again cathy - ok, i'm all signed up over here now - thought i had done that when i was here the first time - meant to - thanks for calling it to my attention - so let's visit soon! thanks for responding - jenean

Celeste Maia said...

Cathy, the thoughts you left at Robert's are sucking us to your blog like a black hole...
Interesting that I just returned from spending 10 days up in the mountains with no connection at all, it was pure bliss. The day was spent trekking with my dog, reading and just sitting by a stream. But at night I turned into a sky watcher, it was pure magic.
The photograph you show is mesmerizing.

tony said...

Looks Like A still from a movie! A Magic Swirling Ship! It Might Be A Small World But It's A BIG Universe!

GYPSYWOMAN said...

good morning cathy - how is your day going? interestingly, this morning i came across an article which you might find interesting over at my travel journal blog - drop on over there should you be so inclined - have a wonderful day! jenean

Joan said...

Wonderful photograph. Love Joan

Lisa said...

Breathtaking, how awesome would it be to see that in person.

Gledwood said...

wow!

Diane J Standiford said...

How dare we be so arrogant to dream we are "the only ones?" The truth is in the beauty.

Sage Ravenwood said...

What a wickedly awesome view! (Hugs)Indigo

GYPSYWOMAN said...

hi cathy - just dropping by your place to say hello - hope your day treats you well - jenean

Celeste Maia said...

Hi Cathy, I really enjoyed your comment on the Pedro and Ines story. I see that you know it well. Are you of Portuguese descent? I am so glad to have "met" you!

Cathy said...

Celeste Maia: Italian and l/3rd Irish, and I'm equally glad we met! OBRIGADA!