Spitzer Telescope Sheds Light On Colony of Baby Stars 34
astroengine writes "NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope had the unprecedented opportunity to observe the heart of the Orion Nebula for 40 days, returning 80 images of the star-forming region. In doing so, the observatory has been keeping track of 1,500 young stars as they undergo rapid variations in brightness, caused by large 'cool spots' on the surface of the stars and obscuring dust. However, the high resolution images Spitzer is returning take center-stage, showing a tight cluster of stellar birth amid the nebulous clouds of dust. This is an incredible achievement considering its primary mission is over (after using up all of its liquid helium coolant in May 2009) and only two instruments are still working."
Spitzer? (Score:2, Funny)
How much does this telescope spend on prostitutes?
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Don't care, as long as it's not money that is SUPPOSED to be spent for looking at stars. ...and if prostitutes improve it's viability, then maybe we should offer some tax money towards them.
Amazing (Score:3, Insightful)
But... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:But... (Score:5, Funny)
We should be more concerned with the lack of parental oversight, didn't you ever read "Lord of the Skies"?
Pretty soon they'll be running around the cosmos wearing loincloths and putting pigs' heads on sticks and hunting each other down in the bush while celebrating the loss of their ability to make fire.
Well, maybe not that last bit, given the fact that they are stars.
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They're not naked, for pete's sake. They are shrouded in interstellar dust. We should be more concerned with the lack of parental oversight, didn't you ever read "Lord of the Skies"? Pretty soon they'll be running around the cosmos wearing loincloths and putting pigs' heads on sticks and hunting each other down in the bush while celebrating the loss of their ability to make fire. Well, maybe not that last bit, given the fact that they are stars.
I read "Lord of the Flies"...
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No, these are stars. Which were observed by the Spitzer telescope by observing the skies.
Yes, not exactly side-splitting humor, I know. But isn't that simple word-substitution joke obvious?
I must be really off today. You're the second person to think that was an error. Maybe I'll need to pepper my next joke post with more puns and word substitutions to make it less subtle.
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Nah, this effort was perfect. The people who don't get it are just dense.
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They're not naked, for pete's sake. They are shrouded in interstellar dust.
OK, OK... But they sure have to be careful not to be naked when they're overweight and old. I've heard there are some really scary laws about that.
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Re:Baby Stars (Score:4, Funny)
Direction of light (Score:5, Funny)
Wouldn't it be a little more accurate to say that a colony of baby stars shed light on the Spitzer Telescope?
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Wouldn't it be a little more accurate to say that a colony of baby stars shed light on the Spitzer Telescope?
I would certainly hope so. Otherwise, the size of the light on the telescope needed for any meaningful lighting on that
scale would double as a very decent planet vaporizer over the range of a couple million kilometers. I wouldn't want that thing
orbiting anywhere near our solar system...
Interstellar condoms (Score:2)
Despite the hooker jokes... (Score:3, Informative)
The Spitzer Telescope is name for American theoretical physicist and astronomer Lyman Spitzer [wikipedia.org], not the millionaire New York real estate tycoon Bernard Spitzer [wikipedia.org] (estimated worth $500 million) or his son, the philandering former Democratic Attorney General and Governor of New York State, Elliot Spitzer [wikipedia.org].
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Drat. And here I was wondering when NASA was going to launch the Dupre Space Telescope.
This star nursery can be seen in IMAX 3D (Score:2)
The new Hubble movie in IMAX 3D has two major flythrough visualizations using Hubble data. One of them is of the star nursey in the Orion Nebula.
Go see the movie. It actually wasn't playing in my (major!) city, and so last weekend I drove 4 hours roundtrip to go see it. I know, I know.