Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI / AURA)- ESA / Hubble CollaborationAcknowledgment: R. Chandar (Univ. Toledo) and J. Miller (Univ. Michigan)
Explanation: If not perfect, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic. An island universe of about 100 billion stars, 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces, M74 presents a gorgeous face-on view. Classified as an Sc galaxy, the grand design of M74's graceful spiral arms are traced by bright blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes. Constructed from image data recorded in 2003 and 2005, this sharp composite is from the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Spanning about 30,000 light-years across the face of M74, it includes exposures recording emission from hydrogen atoms, highlighting the reddish glow of the galaxy's large star-forming regions.I am posting the pretty picture today because the world is too much with me, late and soon. The political landscape is so ugly, so rotted, so depraved that I can't write about it, and yet to write about anything else would be trivial. So, here is a picture of something that is both beautiful and non-trivial.
Photo and text from Astronomy Picture of the Day. Do click and enlarge.
1 comment:
Sorry to hear that you feel such a sense of darkness about the world and political situation.
Maybe it is time to turn off the news for a week and immerse yourself in some golden classics or teachings of the wise women and men who have lived upon this precious earth of ours. One shelf of my bookshelf is reserved for such literature. Whenever I am physically or spiritually ill, I start reading them and continue to do so until I feel healed again.
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