Lucy, in the sky, with 1x 10^12 diamonds
January 7, 2015 2:18 AM Subscribe
Incredible, haunting, and wonderful. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
posted by cwest at 3:27 AM on January 7, 2015
posted by cwest at 3:27 AM on January 7, 2015
This looks familiar, vaguely familiar...
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:43 AM on January 7, 2015
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:43 AM on January 7, 2015
Saw this image the other day: Moon and Andromeda Galaxy relative size in the sky. Had no idea it was that "close".
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 3:46 AM on January 7, 2015 [7 favorites]
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 3:46 AM on January 7, 2015 [7 favorites]
Had no idea it was that "close".
In terms of galaxies, it's very close. It's also a very large object, 43kpc diameter, as opposed to 3-~30kpc for the Milky Way. It's also very bright, but since it's so large, that total brightness is spread over a very large area. You can see the core by naked eye, but that's only a fraction of the entire galaxy. Our galaxy is the same, in truly dark skies, the Milky Way is an incredibly glorious sight, add in suburban lights, and it's invisible.
In one of those things we wonder about, although Andromeda seems to be much larger than the Milky Way, our galaxy seems to contain more mass.
There's one other grand spiral galaxy visible to the naked eye, but only just -- M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. In truly dark skies, it's visible directly, and it's used as a marker point in the Bortle Dark Sky Scale.
posted by eriko at 4:15 AM on January 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
In terms of galaxies, it's very close. It's also a very large object, 43kpc diameter, as opposed to 3-~30kpc for the Milky Way. It's also very bright, but since it's so large, that total brightness is spread over a very large area. You can see the core by naked eye, but that's only a fraction of the entire galaxy. Our galaxy is the same, in truly dark skies, the Milky Way is an incredibly glorious sight, add in suburban lights, and it's invisible.
In one of those things we wonder about, although Andromeda seems to be much larger than the Milky Way, our galaxy seems to contain more mass.
There's one other grand spiral galaxy visible to the naked eye, but only just -- M33, the Triangulum Galaxy. In truly dark skies, it's visible directly, and it's used as a marker point in the Bortle Dark Sky Scale.
posted by eriko at 4:15 AM on January 7, 2015 [6 favorites]
The manual zoomy version from spacetelescope.org.
The main page for the image also has download links for the full versions.
Similar images from ground based data exist as well. They're at lower resolution, but with the full view of Andromeda - typically 300-600 megapixels.
posted by edd at 4:48 AM on January 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
The main page for the image also has download links for the full versions.
Similar images from ground based data exist as well. They're at lower resolution, but with the full view of Andromeda - typically 300-600 megapixels.
posted by edd at 4:48 AM on January 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
In one of those things we wonder about, although Andromeda seems to be much larger than the Milky Way, our galaxy seems to contain more mass.
Although recent research suggests that the opposite might me true, and that Andromeda might be twice as massive as the Milky Way, due to overflowing with dark matter.
posted by dng at 5:13 AM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Although recent research suggests that the opposite might me true, and that Andromeda might be twice as massive as the Milky Way, due to overflowing with dark matter.
posted by dng at 5:13 AM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Awesome. And it's coming soon* to a Galaxy near you!
* For a sufficiently 'deep time' definition of 'soon' - 4 billion years.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:57 AM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
* For a sufficiently 'deep time' definition of 'soon' - 4 billion years.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:57 AM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
My favorite Andromeda fact: the light you see left Andromeda before humans walked the earth.
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:13 AM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by spikeleemajortomdickandharryconnickjrmints at 7:13 AM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
/speechless/
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 7:44 AM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Uncle Grumpy at 7:44 AM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Stars. The bigger blobs are foreground stars (stars in the Milky Way).
The work associated here was just announced at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle (#AAS225 on twitter if you want to see a lot of great scientists get really excited over stars, planets, and general cool stuff in real time). The UW research group working on this goes by the name PHAT. Nature write-up is here. The AAS meeting is also where they released the new Hubble image of the Eagle Cluster, which also was posted on metafilter. There was also a talk by the Kepler people announcing the current exo-planet search results, crossing the milestone of 1000 verified exoplanets and 8 in the habitable zone. I'm sure there will continue to be exciting results on all sorts of starry/planetary fun stuff coming out throughout the week.
posted by physicsmatt at 8:10 AM on January 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
The work associated here was just announced at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Seattle (#AAS225 on twitter if you want to see a lot of great scientists get really excited over stars, planets, and general cool stuff in real time). The UW research group working on this goes by the name PHAT. Nature write-up is here. The AAS meeting is also where they released the new Hubble image of the Eagle Cluster, which also was posted on metafilter. There was also a talk by the Kepler people announcing the current exo-planet search results, crossing the milestone of 1000 verified exoplanets and 8 in the habitable zone. I'm sure there will continue to be exciting results on all sorts of starry/planetary fun stuff coming out throughout the week.
posted by physicsmatt at 8:10 AM on January 7, 2015 [3 favorites]
One thing that surprised me when I started learning about amateur astronomy is that there are really only about 5000 stars. I mean there's lots more of course, but only ~5000 that are visible to the naked eye (magnitude of 6 or brighter). And of course some of those "stars" aren't stars at all but are galaxies, or clusters, or other complex objects. And a few of those are visibly not point sources to the naked eye. Including the Andromeda galaxy. Also the Beehive Cluster, which I spotted late one warm night sitting outside and looking up. I was like "wait a minute.. that's kinda fuzzy" and grabbed some binoculars and yep, a cluster. I keep convincing myself I can see a smudge where the Orion Nebula is, but perhaps that's wishful thinking.
posted by Nelson at 8:13 AM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 8:13 AM on January 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Our galaxy is the same, in truly dark skies, the Milky Way is an incredibly glorious sight, add in suburban lights, and it's invisible.
The first time I saw it, was at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. I literally had no idea that you could see it with the naked eye before that, I always thought those photos were long exposure camera shots.
posted by empath at 8:16 AM on January 7, 2015
The first time I saw it, was at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. I literally had no idea that you could see it with the naked eye before that, I always thought those photos were long exposure camera shots.
posted by empath at 8:16 AM on January 7, 2015
In some parts of the shot you can see distant* galaxies shining through Andromeda's disk (there are at least two visible at 0:51 in the FPP video, for example).
* Again, 'distant' is relative. Andromeda is close - just 18 diameters away based on a maximum diameter of 140 kly and a distance of 2.54 Mly, or 11.5 diameters using the extended (2005) 220 kly stellar disk. (The Moon, for comparison, is about 104 diameters away at closest.) (See L.P. Hatecraft's link above for visual.)
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:45 PM on January 7, 2015
* Again, 'distant' is relative. Andromeda is close - just 18 diameters away based on a maximum diameter of 140 kly and a distance of 2.54 Mly, or 11.5 diameters using the extended (2005) 220 kly stellar disk. (The Moon, for comparison, is about 104 diameters away at closest.) (See L.P. Hatecraft's link above for visual.)
posted by Autumn Leaf at 4:45 PM on January 7, 2015
Some of the blobs are things like globular clusters, not just individual stars.
posted by edd at 4:50 PM on January 7, 2015
posted by edd at 4:50 PM on January 7, 2015
I keep convincing myself I can see a smudge where the Orion Nebula is, but perhaps that's wishful thinking.
You can, but not the nebula directly. You're seeing the Trapezium Cluster at the center of the nebula.
posted by dirigibleman at 4:53 PM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
You can, but not the nebula directly. You're seeing the Trapezium Cluster at the center of the nebula.
posted by dirigibleman at 4:53 PM on January 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
> Some of the blobs are things like globular clusters, not just individual stars.
I allowed for that. See also the Andromeda Project blog.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:12 PM on January 7, 2015
I allowed for that. See also the Andromeda Project blog.
posted by Autumn Leaf at 5:12 PM on January 7, 2015
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posted by Literaryhero at 2:42 AM on January 7, 2015