4/22/2004: New Hubble image: Ring galaxy

Undertoad · 04-22-2004, 11:50 AM

Sometimes we see these Hubble images without realizing that these are probably the space images that are going to last and last. These are the ones that'll be posted in schools, that children growing up today will think of as "pictures from space", just as my own generation had its moon images and planet images and eventually Apollo images and such.

Some of the Hubble images are more picturesque than others and you would have to think these are the ones that will be thought of that way, and this new one is very picturesque. The official description tells us that it's 150,000 light years in diameter, the result of galaxies colliding.

More in the full story, which also tells us that "Anyone who lives on planets embedded in the ring would be treated to a view of a brilliant band of blue stars arching across the heavens. The view would be relatively short-lived because theoretical studies indicate that the blue ring will not continue to expand forever. After about 300 million years, it will reach a maximum radius, and then begin to disintegrate."

04-22-2004, 11:50 AM	#1
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	4/22/2004: New Hubble image: Ring galaxy Sometimes we see these Hubble images without realizing that these are probably the space images that are going to last and last. These are the ones that'll be posted in schools, that children growing up today will think of as "pictures from space", just as my own generation had its moon images and planet images and eventually Apollo images and such. Some of the Hubble images are more picturesque than others and you would have to think these are the ones that will be thought of that way, and this new one is very picturesque. The official description tells us that it's 150,000 light years in diameter, the result of galaxies colliding. More in the full story, which also tells us that "Anyone who lives on planets embedded in the ring would be treated to a view of a brilliant band of blue stars arching across the heavens. The view would be relatively short-lived because theoretical studies indicate that the blue ring will not continue to expand forever. After about 300 million years, it will reach a maximum radius, and then begin to disintegrate."

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