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.

Young Star

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.

Eye-Shaped Nebula

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.

Cat's Eye Nebula

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.

Globular Cluster M15

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.

Cigar Galaxy

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.

Egg Nebula

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.

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Someone sent me these pics in an email, so many of you have probably already seen them, but I liked them enough that I decided to put them up here.  Others I added to complete the chain.  I have no idea what the origin of some these images is, so if they are your creation and you don't want them here, tell me and I will take them down.  The satellite images are from Google Earth.  The text is my own.

Going to Work 100 ft

We start with this fine fellow, or perhaps it's a woman.  Even with less than one meter resolution, this is as good as the satellite imagery for this area of the earth gets in Google Earth.  I imagine they're going to work, or perhaps getting off from work, I don't know which.

2 - Parking Lot at Work 600 ft

At 600 ft, we still haven't even gotten out of the parking lot, but our hero is already invisible.

3 - Pentagon 4000 ft

And now, at 4,000 ft., we see that our hero works at the Pentagon, the largest free-standing building in the world.  Our subject, having ascended to a position where they are working in this building, probably feels pretty good about him or herself.  They probably think they're pretty important.

4 Washington DC 22 mi

At 22 miles, we can see all of Washington, but the Pentagon is no longer visible.  Maybe it wasn't that important of a building, after all.

5 - NE US 565 mi

The Northeastern United States, or at least part of them, at 565 miles.  If DC weren't labeled right in the middle, would you be able to pick it out?

6 - Eastern US 6400 mi

And now we can see the familiar eastern seaboard of the United States, here at 6,400 miles.

7 - Earth 6600 mi

And here's our planet, or at least the part that's visible from this side of it.  We really see only one continent, here.  Do you think the Pentagon employee from the first pic realizes how small they are compared to the ball of rock and water to which they're clinging?

Inner Solar System

We're all very small compared to the size of the panet we live on, but we live on a big planet, right?

Solar System

Wow, look how small our planet is compared to the rest of the Solar System.  But even if Jupiter is pretty big, we can still see Earth, so we must not be that insignificant.

Solar System w Sun

The sun makes the largest planet, Jupiter, look like a marble, and Earth is barely a pebble.  It's no wonder our ancestors worshipped the sun.

Arcturus

But they would have been better off worshipping Arcturus, which makes our sun look miniscule.  At this scale, Earth isn't even visible.  Our planet is nothing compared to the size and power of the larger stars.

Antares

And yet, Arcturus is only a pebble compared to Antares, and again our own sun is almost invisible.  Look back above to see the comparative size of the sun and Jupiter, and again between Jupiter and Earth, then think about how small our planet is compared to Antares, the largest known star.

Spiral Arm Galaxy

 All of the stars above, including the Sun, reside in a spiral arm galaxy we call the Milky Way.  Obviously, we can't take a picture of the Milky Way as it looks like from the outside, but it probably looks like this one.  This is a picture of NGC 7331, sometimes called "Milky Way's twin," because structurally it closely resembles our own galaxy, but it is otherwise too insignificant an object in our sky to even have a name.  Like our galaxy, this galaxy contains over 100 billion stars, many of which have planetary systems.

Galaxies

This is a picture of an "empty" area of our sky.  These objects, including the larger smudges and each of the tiny dots between them, is a galaxy, much like the spiral arm galaxy pictured above.  Each one of these galaxies is made up of billions of stars.

Dark Galaxies

Zooming in on one of the darker sections of the above picture, we get this one, showing even more galaxies off in the distance.  As far as we know, there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe, each of which is made of hundreds of billions of stars, many of which will have planetary systems around them.

Now, given this perspective, how likely are the following statements to be true?

1. The entire universe was made just for us.
2. We are the only living creatures in the entire universe.
3. We are the only intelligent living creatures in the entire universe.
4. We will never make contact with intelligent living creatures elsewhere in the universe.
5. We will someday run out of resources.
6. We will someday run out of things to learn.
7. Your problems are really damned important.

[Edit: By #5, I am not implying that since we will never run out of resources, we should use them without regard to the consequences.  If we never expend the resources necessary to begin accessing other resources off-planet, however, our species will die here.]

And now I'm off to my second performance of A Christmas Carol with the community theater group, and I'll try not to sweat the small stuff. 

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Strix and I went to a presentation tonight at the Salmon Ruins (named after the family that owned the site before it was made into a city park), by the author of a fictional novel set in Chaco Canyon during the height of the Anasazi population of the region.  Much of the presentation had to do with the astronomy of the Chaco Canyon ruins.

Fajada Butte

The Anasazi had a very advanced knowledge of astronomy.  Petroglyphs atop Fajada Butte are set in the rock in such a way that it marks exactly the date of the Summer and Winter Solstice, as well as the Spring and Autumnal Equinox.  The ruins themselves were oriented perfectly to catch the rays of the solstice and lined up with the minimal and maximum moon phases.

Pueblo Bonito

The book is a murder mystery, set at Pueblo Bonito, which was the largest living structure in North America from the time of its completion around 1100 A.D. until the 1800's, with over three hundred rooms.  We bought a couple copies of his book, Shadows of Chaco Canyon, and I look forward to reading it.

I also had to buy a couple copies because Strix and I were the only ones to show up, and I felt sorry for him.  But it was an interesting presentation.

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Originally posted on my old blog on February 24th, 2006:

After breakfast, we headed toward Cloudcroft and up an extremely curvey set of roads to the solar observatory at Sunspot, New Mexico.  We were disappointed to see that the museum at the observatory was only open on Saturdays and Sundays, but we did get some good pictures of the outside.
 
On the way, we stopped for some great pictures.

Mexico Canyon Trestle

The Mexican Canyon Trestle, an abandoned railroad trestle.

Mexico Canyon Trestle Sign

A sign posted at the roadway, unnecessarily stating that the trestle is closed.  This was in case the missing rails and the absent sections didn't clue you in.

White Sands View

A view of the White Sands from an overlook in the mountains.

Stina

Stina taking pictures from the overlook.

It got considerably colder as we continued up the mountain.  The observatory is at about 9,200 feet, according to our GPS, so the air was a little thin, too.

SO Sundial

A sundial mural on the outside wall of the Solar Observatory museum.

SO Sundial 2

A sundial outside the museum that would tell us exactly what day of the year and time of day it is... if the sun weren't hidden by clouds.

SO Antarctic Sunscope

A solar observatory first used in the Antarctic.  Moved here for display.

SO Big Dome

There were several different observatories on the grounds.  This one had a sign that dubbed it "The Big Dome."  I realize these are astrophysicists, not geometry teachers, but shouldn't it be called the Big Cone?

SO Big Dome Scope

There was a small visitors' observation room where we could see the scope inside the Big Dome.  It wasn't in operation, of course, but here it is through the dirty glass of the observation room.

The Tower Observatory, up the hill from the Big Dome.

Views off of the mountain from behind the Tower Observatory.

SO Stina

A pic of Stina.  She took a pic of me, too, but I looked cold and panting from thin oxygen, which is probably because I was.

SO Hilltop Dome

A smaller observatory at the top of the hill.  For some reason, they named it "Hilltop Dome."

SO Crossroads

An intersection of two roads on the Observatory grounds.  It's the intersection of Coronal Loop and Solar Physics Drive.

We stopped at the side of the road to let our brakes cool for a while, and saw this.  The sign is actually pointing to a much nicer buidling up the road, but I liked the image.

Hostel Car

A very old car next to the Hostel.  In the enlarged view, you can see that they have decorated it with Christmas lights.  I like people who make the best out of what they have!

A view down Karr Canyon from another roadside overlook.

Karr Canyon Stina

Stina about to be crushed by giant boulders.

Images from another overlook.

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Tomorrow night the moon will turn red as blood.  It's a good time to enact any ancient prophecies you've been meaning to fulfill.

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