Herschel Views The Milky Way (2009 Oct 16)

[orin stepanek]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091016.html
Looks like maybe some star eggs amid the dust clouds! 8) Neat photo
Orin

[Star*Hopper]

"...In initial tests, Herschel's cameras have combined to deliver this spectacular view along the plane of the Milky Way in the constellation of the Southern Cross. Spanning some 2 degrees the premier, false-color, far-infrared view captures our galaxy's cold dust clouds in extreme detail, showing a remarkable, connected maze of filaments and star-forming regions."

I know Euro likes to fluff things now & then.....but despite all that hoopla, it appears to me like nobody's quite figured out the focus knob.
I dunno....maybe I'm just having a 'bad eyes day'.


~S*H

[geckzilla]

It's not your eyes, it is kind of blurry. Maybe that's just the nature of far infrared imaging.

[bystander]

The SPIRE portion seems to be sharper than the PACS portion, and there seems to be a slight alignment problem. Maybe Herschel needs corrective surgery like Hubble did. I hope not, chances for that are vanishingly small.

http://herschel.esac.esa.int/FirstParal ... ages.shtml

[jerbil]

How did Sir William Herschel know anything about Infrared spectra? Well actually the details are well described. I am sorry to have intruded on this thread.

[Star*Hopper]

"... Maybe Herschel needs corrective surgery like Hubble did. I hope not, chances for that are vanishingly small."

Hubble (Ver.1) will always & forever live in my mind as that gag about being proof you shouldn't let General Motors grind your mirrors. "Didn't anyone notice the 'OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR'?"


~S*H

[orin stepanek]

Hubble (Ver.1) will always & forever live in my mind as that gag about being proof you shouldn't let General Motors grind your mirrors. "Didn't anyone notice the 'OBJECTS IN MIRROR ARE CLOSER THAN THEY APPEAR'?"

Isn't that what a telescope does? Make things closer than they appear; to the naked eye anyway.

Orin

[Star*Hopper]

So you 'get it', then?

~*

[neufer]

<<Let there be light: Herschel telescope images show birth of stars 1,000 light years from Earth
By Wil Longbottom / Daily Mail 16th December 2009

This amazing image taken from the recently launched Herschel telescope shows the birth of up to 700 stars 1,000 light years from Earth. Released by the European Space Agency, the previously unseen stellar nursery has been described as among the most important images obtained from space in decades.


This image from the recently launched Herschel telescope shows the birth of up to
700 stars and clouds of 'stardust', which all life is made from, in the Aquila constellation

Discovery: Scientists hope the Herschel telescope, which was recently launched into space, will reveal some of the history of star formation

The image, taken using two of Herschel's instruments, shows a dark cloud 1,000 light years away in the constellation Aquila, or the Eagle. It covers an area 65 light years across and is so shrouded in dust that no previous infrared satellite has been able to see into it. Thanks to Herschel's superior sensitivity at the longest infrared wavelengths, astronomers are able to get their first picture of the interior of this cloud and previously invisible 'stardust'. This is what galaxies, stars, planets and all life is made from and can help scientists follow the life cycle of the cosmos.

Bruce Swinyard, from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, is a member of the research team which designed Herschel's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, one of three instruments which provide the telescope's 'eyes'.

The telescope's infrared capability allows it to look deep into space at galaxies which thrived when the Universe was roughly half to a fifth of its present age. This is a period in cosmic history when it is thought star formation was at its most prolific.

Professor Swinyard told the BBC that by looking at 'young galaxies', Herschel is able to reveal some of the history of star formation. He said that the thousands of galaxies the telescope had detected would allow researchers to test models of galaxy formation, and to uncover the chemical processes that make stardust.>>
-------------------------------

[orin stepanek]

<<Let there be light: Herschel telescope images show birth of stars 1,000 light years from Earth
By Wil Longbottom / Daily Mail 16th December 2009

This amazing image taken from the recently launched Herschel telescope shows the birth of up to 700 stars 1,000 light years from Earth. Released by the European Space Agency, the previously unseen stellar nursery has been described as among the most important images obtained from space in decades.


This image from the recently launched Herschel telescope shows the birth of up to
700 stars and clouds of 'stardust', which all life is made from, in the Aquila constellation

Discovery: Scientists hope the Herschel telescope, which was recently launched into space, will reveal some of the history of star formation

The image, taken using two of Herschel's instruments, shows a dark cloud 1,000 light years away in the constellation Aquila, or the Eagle. It covers an area 65 light years across and is so shrouded in dust that no previous infrared satellite has been able to see into it. Thanks to Herschel's superior sensitivity at the longest infrared wavelengths, astronomers are able to get their first picture of the interior of this cloud and previously invisible 'stardust'. This is what galaxies, stars, planets and all life is made from and can help scientists follow the life cycle of the cosmos.

Bruce Swinyard, from the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire, is a member of the research team which designed Herschel's Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, one of three instruments which provide the telescope's 'eyes'.

The telescope's infrared capability allows it to look deep into space at galaxies which thrived when the Universe was roughly half to a fifth of its present age. This is a period in cosmic history when it is thought star formation was at its most prolific.

Professor Swinyard told the BBC that by looking at 'young galaxies', Herschel is able to reveal some of the history of star formation. He said that the thousands of galaxies the telescope had detected would allow researchers to test models of galaxy formation, and to uncover the chemical processes that make stardust.>>
-------------------------------

nothing fuzzy about this one!

[harry]

G'day

Its amazing how star formation occurs along filaments. The origin of these filaments holds the secrets to the universe.

[bystander]

Its amazing how star formation occurs along filaments. The origin of these filaments holds the secrets to the universe.

The filaments in the apod and in Art's reference have nothing at all to do with the galaxy filaments that are a part of the large scale structure of the universe. These filamants are well within our own galaxy and are of the stuff from which stars are made. Why is it so amazing that stars form where there is an abundance of stellar material?

[harry]

G'day Bystander

What a silly question.

Do you not find it amazing the images and the beauty of the cosmos?

I have been seeing the sky for decades and still find it amazing.

As for filaments, filaments are filaments small and large and their formation is extraordinary, how they connect from one object to the other like a web similar to the brain, having electrical impulses interconnecting each.

As for star formation filaments play an important part in sparking and rejuvinating stars.

[Chris Peterson]

Do you not find it amazing the images and the beauty of the cosmos?

Fascinating, nearly always. Amazing only occasionally. Personally, I don't see what to find amazing in the image under discussion. For the most part what's going on in the image is perfectly understandable; I am amazed by things that appear to operate differently from what physics would suggest.

As for filaments, filaments are filaments small and large and their formation is extraordinary, how they connect from one object to the other like a web similar to the brain, having electrical impulses interconnecting each.

Of course, there's no electrical connection associated with these filaments, nor with larger filaments. In fact, there's no connection of any kind. These are fully understood as shock fronts in gas and dust. Larger scale filaments are gravitational structures.

As for star formation filaments play an important part in sparking and rejuvinating stars.

No, they don't. They merely provide areas with sufficient dust and gas density that stars are able to form. The "sparking" of stars results from gravitational collapse. And stars are never "rejuvenated"; they have one life, and at the end (if they are large enough) they inject some or most of their material back into space to become the raw material for new stars.