![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Wow, a couple of gorgeous shots from the NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day. After that are a couple more shots from NASA. Yesterday's, taken from atop Mauna Kea on Hawaii, high above most of the Earth's atmosphere:
Click the image to see the story.
And from last September, a mosaic taken in Canyonlands National Park, eastern Utah:
Click the image to see the story.
The Milky Way is the most-visible portion of our Milky Way Galaxy, recently identified as a barred-spiral type (see photo, below). We live within a small, partial arm called the Orion Arm, between the Sagittarius and Perseus Arms. This is about 2/3 of the way out from the core, so what we call "the Milky Way" is the disk of the galaxy; when we look inward toward the densest region, near the constellation Sagittarius, we're looking toward the galactic core. In the opposite direction of the core lies the outer Perseus Arm, while above and below the band of the Milky Way is the relative emptiness of intergalactic space. This next photo is a great map of the Milky Way Galaxy looking down from above, annotated with names of the spiral arms:
Click the image to see details about the spiral arms in our galaxy and to find a much-larger version of the image.
The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across, 1,000 light-years thick, and contains between 200-400 billion stars. It takes our Solar System 220 million years to orbit the core. Wow, think about those numbers for a moment, then check out this great panorama of our view of this awesome domain:
Click the image to see a much-bigger version.
When I was young, I used to live in places where I could look up and see such glory. After looking at these photos, I need a vacation to a dark place.
Best,
Chris
Click the image to see the story.
And from last September, a mosaic taken in Canyonlands National Park, eastern Utah:
Click the image to see the story.
The Milky Way is the most-visible portion of our Milky Way Galaxy, recently identified as a barred-spiral type (see photo, below). We live within a small, partial arm called the Orion Arm, between the Sagittarius and Perseus Arms. This is about 2/3 of the way out from the core, so what we call "the Milky Way" is the disk of the galaxy; when we look inward toward the densest region, near the constellation Sagittarius, we're looking toward the galactic core. In the opposite direction of the core lies the outer Perseus Arm, while above and below the band of the Milky Way is the relative emptiness of intergalactic space. This next photo is a great map of the Milky Way Galaxy looking down from above, annotated with names of the spiral arms:
Click the image to see details about the spiral arms in our galaxy and to find a much-larger version of the image.
The Milky Way Galaxy is about 100,000 light-years across, 1,000 light-years thick, and contains between 200-400 billion stars. It takes our Solar System 220 million years to orbit the core. Wow, think about those numbers for a moment, then check out this great panorama of our view of this awesome domain:
Click the image to see a much-bigger version.
When I was young, I used to live in places where I could look up and see such glory. After looking at these photos, I need a vacation to a dark place.
Best,
Chris
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
(And no one can see the Milky Way quite this dramatically with naked eyes. You need light collection over time or with bigger objectives.)
From:
no subject
I want my moon base.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
:-)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Last summer my kids and I camped out in NW New Mexico at Chaco Canyon. No cities within 100 miles, and the Milky Way just glowed.
That map of the Galaxy is cool. And I thought it was fascinating a few years ago when evidence came out indicating we live in a barred-spiral.
From:
no subject
When I was researching for this post, I was stunned to see the new map of our galaxy. I, too, recall when the evidence came to light, so to speak, but I hadn't seen such a clear map. Awe-inspiring stuff, this.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Beer!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Even under the new moon, we were able to walk by starlight... and during the day, the river lived up to its name when we went swimming.
P.S. I have life news coming today, and I'd be more able to plan this sort of trip if we wanted to have like, a group camping vacation or something. That'd be awesome.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Click the image to see the story.
From:
no subject
and explanations don't make any sense!!
especially in light of:
Karen (stone J) is a 29 by 19 by 20 inch (74 by 48 by 51 cm) block of dolomite and weighs an estimated 700 pounds (about 320 kg). Perhaps not surprisingly Karen didn't move during the monitoring period. The stone may have created its 570 straight and old track from momentum gained from its initial fall onto the wet playa. However, Karen disappeared sometime before May 1994, possibly during the unusually wet winter of 1992 to 1993. Removal by artificial means is considered unlikely due to the lack of associated damage to the playa that the needed truck and winch would have done. A possible sighting of Karen was made in 1994 a half mile (800 m) from the playa.
and how come nobody has seen any of them move? wouldn't you think some crazy scientist would camp out with a motion detector? i guess keeping a tent up with 90mph winds would be something of a challenge.
still would a 90mph wind move a 700 pound boulder?
hm.
pretty kewl-weird!