Friday, September 28, 2007

1.5

The picture of the milky way galaxy was taken over a year ago in infrared light. The infrared light waves range from red light to violet. Astronomers took this image to learn more about how stars are formed. Thick clouds of dust and gas congeal and form stars. It says that some stars are so dark they're even dark when they are viewed in infrared light. There are even traces of supernovas which are puff balls which used to be stars.

Friday, September 21, 2007

1.4

The picture of Northern Cygnus is extremely brilliant and breath taking. It was interesting to see what cameras can do. I did not know that if you were near this constellation in space you would still be unable to see it like this picture displays it and you would only be able to see the northern america nebula. The picture is a series of shots that capture the photons that emit the light. If you look at this image it is unbelievable when you see all of the stars in just this one picture of such a small place in space. It gives you a feel for how many stars there truly are just in the universe we know of alone.

Friday, September 14, 2007

1.3

The image of Scorpius up close is spectacular, and breathtaking. It's amazing what you cand o if you just have a good camera. I didn't think it was possible to see something so far away with a camera. It's amazing to me that when people look up at Scorpius we see just a few bright stars. But if we new that this was what it looked like when we saw it it would be so much more captivating. To make the picture look like it does and bring out the colors it was taken in a red exposure which is emitted by hydrogen. This picture has a lot of dust visible which is unlike the common household dust we have here on earth interstellar dust are small clumps of carbon and silicates. The dust is what causes large dark patches in the milky way.



Friday, September 7, 2007

1.2

The picture from August 28 Could Hydrogen Peroxide Life Survive on Mars, at first caught my attention because, at least to my knowledge it waspercieved that no life could survive on any planet in our solar system other than on Earth. So I thought it was extremely interesting that they found a life form that could deal with and adapt to Mars' conditions. I wonder if they put this hydrogen peroxide life on Mars if it would evolve at all and if so what would it evolve into. It says that apparently they have discovered organisms can live wherever there is a niche with water, energy, and organic materials, which is mind boggling because then that could leave a chance life could be developed on other planets as well.