Sunday, November 13, 2022

Contemplating the unimaginable vastness of space

I love articles about astronomy, even though I'm usually lucky if I understand half of what I'm reading. I guess it has to do with the sheer awesomeness of space, the incomprehensible distances, the sizes and shapes of various objects, and the mysterious beauty of things like nebulae (for example, the nebula known as the Pillars of Creation).

Here's an interesting article on an extragalactic structure located in something called the "zone of avoidance" (which is what I used to call I-85 near Durham). 

Update  Check out this photo.

6 comments:

  1. “Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.”

    -- Douglas Adams

    I lived briefly in New Jersey, and "Zone of Avoidance" perfectly describes the huge traffic circle in Cherry Hill, at least during heavy traffic.

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  2. Sounds like you are probably aware of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD). If not, you should check it out. Lots of beautiful images of the universe, and descriptions of what they show.

    Like this rather spooky one.

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  3. The cosmic bat! Absolutely amazing!

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  4. "And suddenly there was a terrible roar all around us and the sky was full of what looked like huge bats, all swooping and screeching and diving around the car..."
    When a head full of crazy drugs turns you into a space telescope.

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  5. Since I was a child I've stared at the stars and wondered if there were other planets there and if so, are they livable, and if so, who lives there. Now we know there are gazillions trillions of planets, and I still wonder.

    Can't see the stars anymore though. Light pollution.

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  6. I think it's all a big canvas and God is 3000 miles away.

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