Monday 13 September 2010

More Space Pictures

 
NGC 300
This picture of the spectacular southern spiral galaxy NGC 300 was taken using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile. It was assembled from many individual images through a large set of different filters over many observing nights, spanning several years. The main purpose of this extensive observational campaign was to get an unusually thorough census of the stars in the galaxy, counting both the number and varieties of stars and marking regions, or even individual stars, that warrant deeper and more focused investigation. But such a rich data collection will also have many other uses for years to come. The images were mostly taken through filters that transmit red, green or blue light. These were supplemented by images through special filters that allow through only the light from ionized hydrogen or oxygen gas and highlight the glowing clouds in the galaxy's spiral arms. The total exposure time amounted to around 50 hours. Credit: ESO

16 comments:

  1. There's some beautiful stuff out there.

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  2. Kewl story, bro! Supportin!

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  3. Yeah Voley. When you want to take a picture of something in space you essentially keep a hypersensitive camera pointed at a very small point over a long time. Since maybe 1 photon of light arrives every second it takes a long time to build up an image. The further away a galaxy is the longer you will need to keep a camera film pointed at it.

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  4. Thank you so much, i LOVE space pictures. The never cease to amaze me

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  5. man space pictures are the best. im now following your terrific blog!

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  6. Measure with a human scale, i just can't imagine how far away the farthest galaxy. We cannot even see on this picture. Its just fascinating.

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  7. amazing post! your blog is intriguing! can't wait for the next post.

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  8. Wow. Space has the ability to ALWAYS amaze me.

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  9. Space is awesome and looks amazing. I just wish we could find other intelligent life out there.

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  10. I love looking at space, I use celestia to roam around the galaxy.

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    ReplyDelete