Starship Asterisk*

Yes, really QUITE beautiful. The hint of a red glow to the gas is striking. Love the colors in this photo.

Other notable photos of CG4:

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060314.html
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap981206.html
http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat071a.html
http://forum.ourdarkskies.com/gallery_images/1187720921/gallery_131_7_225733.jpg

Note the little circular asterism of stars right near the galaxy. Somewhere in another recent thread this kind of thing is being discusssed.

-Noel

I agree SPAMMER in disgust

I think the ab ove is quite obviously a SPAMMER, , duh? :evil:

Wow, thats truly an amazing photo. Really drives home how insignificant we all really are in the whole scheme of things. Crazy stuff

Dan

When I clicked on the link from the APOD " [url=http://www.astronomie.be/hambsch/namibia07/p21338_50f3.htm]above photo[/url] " that elongated cloud looks to be apart of or from a larger cloud that forgot to put its brassiere on.
:lol: :twisted:

[quote="emc"]I expect the image provides us with some M.C. Escher similar perspective wherein the comet gas cloud is really much closer than the galaxy being eaten... right?... But then I wonder why there are stars visible in the foreground of the comet cloud?[/quote]

Correct about the perspective. The stars visible, however, are in our own galaxy and between us and the dust cloud (or else the dust cloud is very thin and stars are visible through it, but I doubt that). The dust cloud, I believe, is also within our own galaxy in the direction of the galactic center, and relatively very large.

The scale of these dust clouds can be huge. For example, check out the amazing APOD a couple days ago showing dust lanes crossing the center of the galaxy Centaurus A. Even at this scale no individual stars are visible in Centaurus A. The points of light are either stars within the our own Milky Way or clusters of many blue, young stars in Centaurus A.

[url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070729.html][img]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0707/CenA_wfpc2.jpg[/img][/url]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060314.html
It looks like the giant space worm is going to eat the galaxy. :P
Orin

I hope everyone reading my coffee comment realizes that I am joking... I realize how serious the study of our universe is and am grateful for the information that the work of others has provided for me. Please excuse my attempt at humor if it is misplaced. Thank you.

I expect the image provides us with some M.C. Escher similar perspective wherein the comet gas cloud is really much closer than the galaxy being eaten... right?... But then I wonder why there are stars visible in the foreground of the comet cloud?

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070806.html

Is the universe really that awesome and beautiful or did someone spill their coffee???