The Space Thread

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The vastness and the unimaginable mysteries of space have fascinated for just about my entire life.

When I see images like this, I could just sit and stare at them all day in amazement.

http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u185/tomobrien91/NO2_350x325.jpg

The Ant Nebula, a cloud of dust and gas whose technical name is Mz3, resembles an ant when observed using ground-based telescopes. The nebula lies within our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth

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http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u185/tomobrien91/Amazing1.jpg

The Sombrero Galaxy - 28 million light years from Earth - was voted best picture taken by the Hubble telescope. The dimensions of the galaxy, officially called M104, are as spectacular as its appearance. It has 800 billion suns and is 50,000 light years across

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http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u185/tomobrien91/NO8_350x312.jpg


Starry Night, so named because it reminded astronomers of the Van Gogh painting. It is a halo of light around a star in the Milky Way

[SWedd523]

That last one should be called Firefox

[ND22]

I absolutely am fascinated with space. I think its the sheer scale of everything, the beauty of it, and how little we know about it that really draws me to it. When you really think about it, there are endless possibilities and explanations when it comes to space.

[CarolinaBlue704]

http://i42.tinypic.com/fjkrgg.jpg

This photo was taken by the Hubble Telescope in 2003 while scanning a very small section of space.In this photo there are over 10,000 galaxies visible.And each one of these galaxies contain billions of stars.And each star has the possibility of planets orbiting it.And each planet has the possibility of some type of life form.Think about that for a minute.

Remember, this just an extremely small section of space. Scientists estimate that there could be anywhere from 100-500 billion galaxies, and that's only in the "visible universe".Thinking about how vast the universe is blows my mine and leaves me feeling very insignificant.:eek:

[bing!]

Screw outer space, 'tis beyond my ken...

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Space is a really, really strange place


http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w301/bobcatsplanet/hexagon.gif

Scientists are puzzled by a giant hexagon formation of clouds seen at Saturn's north pole. The formation was first spotted by a telescope over twenty-five years ago, and it's still there. Which is really, really weird

"This is a very strange feature, lying in a precise geometric fashion with six nearly equally straight sides," said Kevin Baines, atmospheric expert and member of Cassini's visual and infrared mapping spectrometer team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "We've never seen anything like this on any other planet. Indeed, Saturn's thick atmosphere where circularly-shaped waves and convective cells dominate is perhaps the last place you'd expect to see such a six-sided geometric figure, yet there it is."

The hexagon is similar to Earth's polar vortex, which has winds blowing in a circular pattern around the polar region. On Saturn, the vortex has a hexagonal rather than circular shape. The hexagon is nearly 25,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) across. Nearly four Earths could fit inside it.

[dnbman]

Space is a really, really strange place

I'm wondering if it's the atmospheric equivalent of a spirograph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph

I'm wondering if forces in the atmosphere are working like the lines in a spirograph, making the impression of a hexagon.

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I'm wondering if it's the atmospheric equivalent of a spirograph

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirograph

I'm wondering if forces in the atmosphere are working like the lines in a spirograph, making the impression of a hexagon.

If I had to take a guess, I would say that it's because of some weird magnetic conditions at the planet's poles. But I am far from an expert.

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Below is a picture of Jupiter's moon Ganymede. Its the largest moon in our solar system, even bigger than Mercury and Pluto.

I wonder how many of these large moons are actually planets that drifted into our solar system and were captured by the gravity of one of the larger planets.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w301/bobcatsplanet/ganymedeenhanced_galileo.jpg

[amour217]

Uranus....

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Imagine that you are sitting on your front porch looking at the sky watching the sun being devoured by a black hole. This is what that might look like.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou3TukauccM

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This is an amazing photo of a sunset on Mars taken by the rover.


http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w301/bobcatsplanet/sunset_a489_gamma_2sub_800_br2.jpg

[YouKnowNothing]

This is an amazing photo of a sunset on Mars taken by the rover.


http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w301/bobcatsplanet/sunset_a489_gamma_2sub_800_br2.jpg

its amazing how it shows how mars is more relatively farther away than earth by looking at the size of the sun.
imagine the sun being that small here on earth.

[YouKnowNothing]

Its amazing how mars is so relatively further away from sun compared to earth by looking at the size of the sun.

imagine the sun being that size here on earth.

[davcbow]

Its amazing how mars is so relatively further away from sun compared to earth by looking at the size of the sun.

imagine the sun being that size here on earth.

If the sun were that size on Earth it would be like "imagine sitting back on the ice looking at the sun setting in the night sky as the frost bite slowly creeps up your arms and legs."

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big time bump


If you shrunk Earth to the size of an atomic nucleus.....
The universe would still be over 20 billion times the size of Jupiter.

[ND22]

big time bump


If you shrunk Earth to the size of an atomic nucleus.....
The universe would still be over 20 billion times the size of Jupiter.

That's just nuts. NUTS.

Also, has anyone heard of the theory that our universe may just be one of billions of other universes? Ponder that for a second.