Crab Nebula by Hubble

nut writes "I just wanted to draw people's attention to the Image Of The Day courtesy of The Hubble Telescope. There's a couple of other pages with a little more info. I don't know how anyone can doubt the value of putting the Hubble telescope up there when it gives you desktop wallpaper like this :o)"

500x500px only?

[Hakubi_Washu]

You use that as a wallpaper??? Where is the 1280x1024 (minimum) version?

Re:500x500px only?

[WalksOnDirt]

There is actually a 3684x3684 version (JPEG or TIFF) available if you need it.

Re:500x500px only?

[Xega]

Where is the 3684x3684 version, the highest I found was 1280x1024?

Re:500x500px only?

[HyPeR_aCtIvE]

Big versions are found here:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/ releases/2005/37/image/a+warn [hubblesite.org]

Here:

[elrond1999]

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2005/37/images/ a/formats/1280_wallpaper.jpg [hubblesite.org]

Re:Here:

[Hakubi_Washu]

thanks

only wall paper?

[pease1]

I don't know how anyone can doubt the value of putting the Hubble telescope up there when it gives you desktop wallpaper like this :o)

Joy Joy, billion dollar wall paper.

Please spend my money elsewhere.

Re:only wall paper?

[ArsonSmith]

Yea perhaps we could shell out more cash to poor people as that seems to really help. Or we could funnel it to Africa some more because it seems to have brought them around.

At least the Hubble Billions are going to people who want to work and not going to help insure that those unwilling to work don't have to.

Eww, the evil conservative that I am.

Re:only wall paper?

[pease1]

I'm with you... but put the HST money into a bigger, better telescope... at this rate, Slashdot will still be debating if Hubble should be decommissioned after I'm retired and in a rest home. "By GOD, does that 1970's technology just keep on ticking..." :-)

Demon Noises

[wooferhound]

If you look closely, and cross your eyes a little bit, You can see the face of the Devil. I need to Google the National Enquirer now ...
Also looks like Cotton Candy.

Re:Demon Noises

[ArsonSmith]

Cotton Candy is the work of the Devil.

Ohh that puffy billowy goodness. Pure evil I tell you. Pure evil...

Upgrade

[uberdave]

Hubble is amazing and all, and has produced some fabulous images (and maybe, just maybe some actual scientific data), but isn't it time to retire the 1 megapixel bird and replace it with a 5, or 16 megapixel, or perhaps a 4 gigapixel [gigapxl.org] satellite instead?

Re:Upgrade

[Ironsides]

While I do think we need a new space telescope, the optics in the Hubble are vastly different than the optics used in that camera you point to. Besides being able to pic up light outside the visible spectrum, the Hubble can also pick up much weaker sources of light. The more resolution you require, the more light you need. This is why long rnage lenses have such wide apertures. Also, to give you an idea, if you add enough 2x multipliers on a good zoom lens, point it straight at the sun, and look through

Re:Upgrade

[Farmer Tim]

Also, to give you an idea, if you add enough 2x multipliers on a good zoom lens, point it straight at the sun, and look through the viewfinder on an SLR, you will see nothing but black.

Is that before or after your retinas burn out? ;)

Re:Upgrade

[uberdave]

Sorry. I didn't mean to imply that we send up that particular camera. Obviously you're going to want to tune the optics and spectrum sensitivities and what-not for the application. I am not a camera expert, nor do I play one on TV (although I once played an actor who had a role as a photographer on a TV show. [grin]) The point I was trying to make was simply "hey, let's bump up the resolution". The link was merely meant as an example of what higher resolution can do.

Re:Upgrade

[Alsee]

Why, I bet we could send up a few dozen pixels if we sent minipixels instead of those megapixels!

-

Re:Upgrade

[fbg111]

Sure, but how about we wait till those satellites actually launch before abandoning Hubble?

Re:Upgrade

[sploxx]

The effective number of pixels gets much larger if one stitches multiple images together - something which has been AFAIK a lot for hubble images!

Hubble Site available as slashbox

[Xtifr]

It's probably worth mentioning, in case people hadn't noticed, that you can--and I do--have the Hubble Site configured as a "Slashbox", so the current "image of interest" (at present, this Crab Nebula mozaic) will appear as a small image on the Slashdot front page. I've noticed (and grabbed) numerous images this way. Note that this only works, as far as I know, if you have a named account--but you don't need a subscription. Just go to Preferences, click on "Homepage", go down to the "Customize Slashboxes" section, and put a checkmark next to "Hubble Site". You'll be glad you did.

(At least, I assume you'll be glad you did, since, otherwise, why are you bothering to read the discussions about this article in the first place?) :)

Re:Hubble Site available as slashbox

[electrichamster]

Oooh pretty! Cheers for that tip :)

Astronomy Picture of the Day

[wooferhound]

I have my Home Page set to the "Astronomy Picture of the Day"
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html [nasa.gov]

I also keep an eye on JPL's photojournal

[leonbrooks]

This link [nasa.gov] shows you the last 7 days' worth of new images. They occasionally post some really cool (or interesting for other reasons, e.g. ultra high res) images that don't make it to the newsier sites.

Here is [nasa.gov] one of my favourites of Valles Marineris at 9002x3126 pixels. A good excuse for a second monitor: "now I can use this as wallpaper". (-:

Space image of the day

[spot35]

I tend to get my space image fix from NASA [nasa.gov], but this looks good as well. I will be adding this site to my daily round of websites to procrastinate with. **clicky**

Favorite Space Pic Site

[trurl7]

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html [nasa.gov]

Cassini Saturn Pictures

[wooferhound]

The best placee to find pictures of Saturn and it's moons from the Cassini Spacecraft.
http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/Cassini [nasa.gov]

Here...

[nexxuz]

http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2005/37/images/ a/formats/full_jpg.jpg [hubblesite.org]Here, (14.5 MB), is a jpg of the nebula so you don't have to download that stupid viewer.

How big is the nebula?

[Hangin10]

Some simple multiplication leads me to guess in the range of 6x the size of the extent of our Sun's effects. The article says 6 light years, but can anyone put that into a little perspective?

Re:How big is the nebula?

[strikethree]

six light years is about (really 4 light years) the distance to the star (Proxima Centauri) nearest to our sun. of course, interstellar distances are very hard to get a good grasp of... so i am not certain that this is giving you any perspective. try this http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/starlog /strclos.html [gsu.edu] for some insight into how far away it is.

strike

A light nanosecond is about a foot...

[leonbrooks]

...so I'm about 6 light-nanoseconds tall, the screen I'm facing is about one by one and a half light nanoseconds.

A light-second is about a billion feet or 300,000,000m, roughly the same as the distance to the Moon [freemars.org].

86400 seconds in a day, so a light-day is about 26,000,000,000,000m, or 4-5 times the distance to Pluto and Charon, or 170 times as far away as the Sun is from us [ucar.edu].

A light year is 9,500,000,000,000 km [nasa.gov]; and Proxima Centauri (the nearest star) is about 4 of those away, and the Crab nebula is about 4,

Hubble Replacement

[pseudometrometeorgin]

It is a shame that no American space telescope will be in operation when Hubble takes its last pictures in 2008. The JWST will replace it in 2011, with a much different primary mirror design. it is an array of hexagons, rather than a single large mirror. One advantage is that the smaller mirrors are easier to shape because they don't warp under their own weight (as much.) JWST will have a 25 m^2 aperature, while hubble only has 4.5 m^2. Tinsley SSG, manufacturer of Hubble's corrective optics, is manufa