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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Excellent Links / Out of this World

Out of this World

by John Cole|  December 15, 20094:09 pm| 38 Comments

This post is in: Excellent Links, Science & Technology

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This is pretty awesome stuff- the top ten astronomy pictures of the year.

My favorite is this one:

hubbles

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Next Post: Klein v. Lane, Round 3 »

Reader Interactions

38Comments

  1. 1.

    CaseyL

    December 15, 2009 at 4:11 pm

    Ooh! The Party Favor Nebula! Pull it apart and you get a new Big Bang.

  2. 2.

    licensed to kill time

    December 15, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    The Party Favor Niebuhr? What do you get when you pull that?

  3. 3.

    Radon Chong

    December 15, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    These pictures are our civilization’s answer to the pyramids, and are perhaps even more mind blowing.

  4. 4.

    Dave C

    December 15, 2009 at 4:16 pm

    That Butterfly Nebula pic is my desktop background! :)

  5. 5.

    gwangung

    December 15, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    Now this is something I don’t mind my tax dollars paying for…

  6. 6.

    Don't Mess With Texas

    December 15, 2009 at 4:19 pm

    Talk about another world.

    In the conference room, the very first protester to speak said that if the country dissolved, he would move to the first state that seceded.

    You heard it here first – Texas may be the capitol of the New Confederate States of America. Makes sense with Governor Rick Perry and Dubya already there.

    http://thinkprogress.org/2009/12/15/tea-bag-bunning/#comments

  7. 7.

    flukebucket

    December 15, 2009 at 4:22 pm

    @Dave C: Same here.

  8. 8.

    Jamey

    December 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm

    It’s humbling to think that God created all that only 6000 years ago!

  9. 9.

    Keith G

    December 15, 2009 at 4:25 pm

    @CaseyL: Somewhere out there is a civilization which many light years from now will receive our off-cast communications. Once translation achieved, they will be seriously thinking “WTF?”

  10. 10.

    Redshirt

    December 15, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    For those wondering where the mystical elements of any future, rational based Religion will come from – you’re looking at them. Our reality is wondrous beyond belief. This wonder can fulfill that craving many people have for something bigger than themselves.

    We need a new Carl Sagan to guide us.

  11. 11.

    cleek

    December 15, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    meh. fake. it’s all part of the conspiracy to bring in the cash for Big Astronomy.

  12. 12.

    Madeline

    December 15, 2009 at 4:32 pm

    @flukebucket: And Dave C. I’m usually a lurker, but this is too weird. It’s my desktop background too.

  13. 13.

    Dave C

    December 15, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    @Madeline:

    Do y’all read Bad Astronomy? That’s where I got it, a few months back. Phil Plait is the man!

  14. 14.

    colleeniem

    December 15, 2009 at 4:36 pm

    These are truly amazing, I should look at this type of stuff more often.
    It makes my problems seem a lot smaller.

  15. 15.

    Betsy

    December 15, 2009 at 4:39 pm

    Wow. How incredibly gorgeous. Awesome, in the older sense of the word.

    This one is my favorite.

  16. 16.

    Laura W

    December 15, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    @Redshirt: @Redshirt: I dig Brian Swimme.

  17. 17.

    Ruemara

    December 15, 2009 at 4:45 pm

    @CaseyL:

    This. FTW.

  18. 18.

    Madeline

    December 15, 2009 at 4:47 pm

    @Dave C: No, I’m just addicted to hubblesite.org–that’s where I got it. But I’ll have to check out Bad Astronomy.

  19. 19.

    flukebucket

    December 15, 2009 at 4:48 pm

    @Dave C: I’ve never read Bad Astronomy before. I picked up on the ten best pictures from a comment somebody left in one of the threads downstream.

    Balloon-Juice is always a treasure trove of links from commenters.

  20. 20.

    freelancer

    December 15, 2009 at 4:50 pm

    @flukebucket:

    Bad Astronomy is Phil Plait’s blog at Discover. He is an amazing and amusing science writer. Very enthusiastic about the public promotion of science education.

    His book rocks too.

  21. 21.

    freelancer

    December 15, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    @Redshirt:

    Phil Plait – Why Science is Important.

  22. 22.

    Origuy

    December 15, 2009 at 4:55 pm

    @Dave C: Me too. I’ve used APOD photos as wallpaper for years.

  23. 23.

    MR Bill

    December 15, 2009 at 5:01 pm

    Here’s my Hubble desktop image: a ring galaxy.

    It’s sometimes depressing that modern religion is not celebrating these images as the sign of a creator’s creativity.

  24. 24.

    MR Bill

    December 15, 2009 at 5:02 pm

    oh crud.

  25. 25.

    asiangrrlMN

    December 15, 2009 at 5:06 pm

    My fave is the Lunar abyss staring back at me….Mesmerizing.

  26. 26.

    stetson

    December 15, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    This is GREAT news for John McCain!

  27. 27.

    growingdaisies

    December 15, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Heh heh. I work for Hubble. Really cool to see this thread on what has otherwise been a pretty crappy day.

  28. 28.

    kdaug

    December 15, 2009 at 5:19 pm

    Collectively, humanity doesn’t know crap.

  29. 29.

    freelancer

    December 15, 2009 at 5:25 pm

    @MR Bill:

    It’s sometimes depressing that modern religion is not celebrating these images as the sign of a creator’s creativity.

    “In some respects, science has far surpassed religion in delivering awe. How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant. God must be even greater than we dreamed”? Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.”
    -Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot

  30. 30.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    December 15, 2009 at 5:29 pm

    Awesome photos. Even that fake one of the so-called lunar landing.

    @CaseyL: You win the Internets and a bag of chips.

  31. 31.

    canuckistani

    December 15, 2009 at 5:38 pm

    The lunar landing image is my fave, a) because it’s a gold mine of snarky jokes and b) it is a truly awesome achievement.

  32. 32.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    December 15, 2009 at 5:49 pm

    OT: Today in history: D.C. passes equal marriage law. Oral Roberts dies at age 91.

    I could add to this but I don’t want to wind up under the BanHammer.

  33. 33.

    kdaug

    December 15, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    @freelancer:

    Damn, I miss Sagan. Grew up on “Cosmos”, had the soundtrack on LP. He was the shiznit.

  34. 34.

    Leeds man

    December 15, 2009 at 5:53 pm

    Well, as long as no-one thinks this is what the Butterfly Nebula would actually look like to the naked eye, yeah, it’s pretty.

  35. 35.

    chrome agnomen

    December 15, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    ciclops has great images from the cassini probe out to saturn.

  36. 36.

    cay

    December 15, 2009 at 8:20 pm

    leeds man: who cares if it’s naked eye (visible light) or infrared? the helix nebula is awesome in whatever wavelength!

    http://www.aus-city.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=download&Number=423&filename=helix_nebula.jpg

  37. 37.

    growingdaisies

    December 15, 2009 at 8:34 pm

    @freelancer:

    We get a lot of e-mails from religious people thanking us profusely for the pictures and talking, often eloquently, about the wonder and awe they feel looking at them. So I can’t speak for the major religions, but many of the individuals in ’em seem to feel the way Sagan wished they would feel.

  38. 38.

    S. cerevisiae

    December 16, 2009 at 10:31 am

    growingdaisies, as an amateur astronomer I am green with envy that you get to work with the most amazing scientific instrument ever made. I watched Atlantis lift off on the last service mission in May and I was SO grateful that the service mission went so well (after wondering if it was even going to happen at all).

    Stunning photos and great science – keep up the good work.

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