Hubble Telescope's Top Ten Photos

 

 

A fantastic eye opener regarding our universe.

This is science at its best. These are the top rated photos taken by the space telescope, Hubble. While the distances and sizes are incomprehensible to the average person, maybe you can come to grips with them --- and how vast the Universe must be! Can our minds expand enough to comprehend it?  
    

   
Hubble telescope's top ten greatest space photographs

 

 

 

 

The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104 , are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across.

And, isn't it interesting that . . . "we" . . . here . . . on planet Earth
. . . think what's going on in the Universe is all about "us" . . . aren't we naive?

 

 

 

 

 

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth.
  
 So, imagine how long it would take a UFO to get from there to here . . if there is somewhere out there in this realm of this Universe who wanted to pay us a visit. 3,000 and 6,000 light years . . . is a far place

 

 

 

 

 

In third place is Nebula NGC 2392, called Eskimo because it looks like a face surrounded by a furry hood. The hood is, in fact, a ring of comet-shaped objects flying away from a dying star. Eskimo is 5,000 light years from Earth.
  
That's a far place as well . . .

 

 

 

 

 

At four is the Cat's Eye Nebula
 . . . and ain't it "purty"?

 

 

 

 

 

The Hourglass Nebula, 8,000 light years away, has a pinched-in-the-middle look because the winds that shape it are weaker at the centre.
       
 "Winds?" Winds blow there, too? Wow!

 

 

 

 

 

In sixth place is the Cone Nebula.
The part pictured here is 2.5 light years in length
(the equivalent of 23 million return trips to the Moon).
       
Don't guess we'll be going there anytime soon? Unless, we do it in Spirit.

 

 

 

 

 

In 7th Place, The Perfect Storm, a small region in the Swan Nebula, 5,500 light years away, described as 'a bubbly ocean of hydrogen and small amounts of oxygen, sulphur and other elements'.
       
Wouldn't it be fun to see this closer?

 

 

 

 

 

In 8th place, Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way.

Like ... "Wow!"

 

 

 

 

 

In 9th place, The glowering eyes from 114 million light years away are the swirling cores of two merging galaxies called NGC 2207 and IC 2163 in the distant Canis Major constellation.
       
It keeps getting more and more awesome.

Again, we think the Universe is all about this little ole Planet -- Earth.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 10th place, The Trifid Nebula. A 'stellar nursery', 9,000 light years from here, it is where new stars are being born.
       
Twinkle, twinkle, big star . . how I wonder what you are?

 

 

 

 

 

From: wgordon
Subject: Hubble Telescope's Top Ten Photos
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:10:15 -0700