NASA Constructs 160-Megapixel Mosaic of Neighboring Galaxies
Eric Calouro · Jun 04, 2013
High-resolution photography is seemingly where it’s at in today’s day and age. NASA knows this, and as such, astrophysicists at both the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) in Maryland and Pennsylvania State University have stitched together a remarkable 160-megapixel UV image of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — our two closest neighboring galaxies (less than 200,000 light years away).
“We took thousands of images and assembled them into seamless portraits of the main body of each galaxy, resulting in the highest-resolution surveys of the Magellanic Clouds at ultraviolet wavelengths,” said Stefan Immler of GSFC.
2,200 images, in fact, compose this very colorful mosaic captured by the Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope.
“Prior to these images, there were relatively few UV observations of these galaxies, and none at high-resolution across such wide areas, so this project fills in a major missing piece of the scientific puzzle,” said Michael Siegel from the Swift Mission Operations Center in Pennsylvania.
The capturing of these UV wavelength images allow scientists to better study the cosmos by showing details that would otherwise not be visible.
Read more at http://petapixel.com/2013/06/04/nasa-constructs-160-megapixel-mosaic-of-neighboring-galaxies/
hi rez versions here:
http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a010000/a011200/a011293/
= new reply since forum marked as read
M31. The only object outside our galaxy that is easily seen without a telescope.
Polaris, the North Star, which is within a degree of the Earth's North Pole. The Southern Hemisphere has no pole star. The funny thing is that we're lucky to have one now. In the era of the Egyptian Pharoahs the Pole Star wasn't Polaris. It was Thuban, or Alpha Draconis. We are lucky to have a pole star just at the point in our history that we can make the measurements necessary to understand how to navigate and how the Earth rotates.
But the Northern Hemisphere does not have access to the two Milky Way satellite galaxies, the Magellanic Clouds. Nor the closest stars to the Sun, Proxima, Alpha, and Beta Centauri.
Plus, you cannot see this from the Northern Hemisphere:
Omega Centauri, the largest globular cluster in our galaxy:
Or, this. The incredibly awesome Eta Carinae Nebula:
Which has at its center one of the most dangerous stars in the galaxy, Eta Carinae herself. Here it is, one dangerous thingy
