Sailing Through the Googleverse
I finally got around to downloading the latest version of Google Earth today, and I was amazed to find that it now has an astronomy feature. With the click of a button, you switch from viewing the surface of Earth from space to viewing space from a virtual point on Earth. I'm sure this is old news to some of you, but I'm astounded at the detail in it! I've never been one for practical astronomy - standing out in the cold with a telescope trying to make out fuzzy things in the sky - but I absolutely love the concepts in astronomy, and I'm a huge fan of images from space, particularly those brought to us by the Hubble Space Telescope. Google Earth's sky mode overlays images of the sky, so that as you zoom in you get more and more detailed images, many of which were originally taken by the Hubble.
So, without further ado, here are some of the images I found just by messing around in Google Earth today in sky view mode.
Stars are born in nebula. The gas of a dark nebula condenses over time, drawn in by gravity. Eventually, a star forms. Once the star has sufficient mass, fusion reactions begin at its core, and the energy emitted by the new star blows away the gas from the nebula. Here, young stars at the center of what used to be a nebula are surrounded by the gases that served as their womb.
My god, it's looking at me! A nebula is a gas cloud, usually with a star or cluster of stars at the center of it. The light of the star illuminates the gas cloud, bringing out amazing colors and detailed structure.
Nebula are among the most beautiful objects we can see with telescopes, so I spent a lot of time looking them up. The Cat's Eye Nebula is one of the most amazing objects in the universe, in my opinion, just for its sheer beauty.
One of the many globular clusters in our galaxy. A globular cluster is nothing more than a group of stars held in close proximity by mutual gravitational attraction. How many are there in cluster? I don't know, this is an image of the core of the cluster, so not even all of the stars are shown. Go ahead, count them. How many have planets? Another good question. We need a bigger telescope.
I don't name 'em, folks. This galaxy is being torn apart by the gravitational effects of a neighboring galaxy, with materials flying out of it and new stars being born in the center of it as an amazing rate, with the nebulae being compressed by the tidal effects. It's also gorgeous.
Another gorgeous nebula. Each one is different because of the composition of gases, the types of stars within them and around them, and what other forces may be acting on them.
That's all for now, just a sampling of what's out there. Every time I look at astronomical pictures, my awe at the size and grandeur of the universe is renewed.
Comments
Wow, beautiful! It's news to me, I just discovered like last week that Google Earth has a flying function, had no idea about this. Great info too, and I think a newly forming planet was just discovered too according to BBC. Nice.
I just thought of something. how others and myself make comparisons to other scenes. It is part of our search for meaning to make comparisons.
Lucy