Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2012 March 23 Messier 9 Close-up Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA Explanation: Renown 18th century astronomer Charles Messier described this 9th entry in his famous astronomical catalog as "Nebula, without star, in the right leg of Ophiuchus ...". But Messier 9 (M9) does have stars, known to modern astronomers as a globular cluster of over 300,000 stars within a diameter of about 90 light-years. It lies some 25,000 light-years distant, near the central bulge of our Milky Way galaxy. This Hubble Space Telescope close-up resolves the dense swarm of stars across the cluster's central 25 light-years. At least twice the age of the Sun and deficient in heavy elements, the cluster stars have colors corresponding to their temperatures, redder stars are cooler, bluer stars are hotter. Many of the cluster's cool red giant stars show a yellowish tint in the sharp Hubble view.
Leroy, Hooked, anyone else who views this picture and loves astronomy - could you tell me if any of you get a special buzz when looking at pictures like this? It may be stronger when you're high, but I'm intrigued as to the proportion of people not just liking pictures like this, but also getting a special feeling of 'something' they can't explain too from time to time. MelT
[quote name='"MelT"']Leroy, Hooked, anyone else who views this picture and loves astronomy - could you tell me if any of you get a special buzz when looking at pictures like this? It may be stronger when you're high, but I'm intrigued as to the proportion of people not just liking pictures like this, but also getting a special feeling of 'something' they can't explain too from time to time. MelT[/quote] Its amazing to think that was all probly tje remnant of one giga star going nova
I get that when seeing things through my telescope. It's almost like a peacefulness that is unexplainable. Being able to look at Saturn's rings live, or viewing Jupiter and seeing the red spot along with one of it's moons in front with it's shadow being cast on the planet is the greatest thing.. I'll be honest, photos don't do it as much as looking firsthand, for me anyway.
Hell yeah I only discovered my interest a year ago but have started a degree already I love the subject so much. I first saw the Andromeda galaxy a few months ago and it blew me away, not ashamed to admit it bought a tear to my eye. Same thing happened when I first saw Pleiades, Jupiter's Galilean moons and the Orion nebula through a decent scope. Space. is. Awesome. That is all.