Planck Satellite Reveals Star Formation Processes

An anonymous reader writes "New images from the Planck Space Observatory reveal the gas and dust between the stars and isolate the physical processes at work in our galaxy. The new images are an eye-catching by-product of a spacecraft designed to look back at the earliest light in the universe. ... When observed at much longer wavelengths, where the cosmic microwave background can be seen, the picture is very different, as clearly demonstrated in new images from ESA's Planck mission. The dust is no longer a dark shroud, but shines out in its own right, and new aspects of our galaxy are revealed."

Re:Awe

[Mindcontrolled]

ad 1) Definitely. I used to live at the arse-end of nowhere, at the outskirts of town right at the forest's edge. The night sky was spectacular and you could spot a lot of things just with some binoculars. Middle of a large town now, the light pollution is so bad you can't usually even see the milky way. The most spectacular night sky I ever saw was when I traveled Iceland, though. I spent a night in a cabin in the middle of the highlands - no civilization around for at least 100 km in every direction. Absolutely breathtaking. No aurora, though, unfortunately. ad 2) Who knows? Scientific revolutions have a tendency to come unexpected and lead to a phase of rapid technological growth. My hopes aren't too high, either. We seem much too busy developing new cellphones and plasma TVs these days, though.