Long-time readers of the blog know that I sometimes go slightly off-topic to share my geek love for all things space. This month, Hubble celebrates its 21st anniversary of deploying into space and released this gorgeous picture of two intersecting galaxies called Arp273. "Arp 273 lies in the constellation Andromeda and is roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth. The image shows a tenuous tidal bridge of material between the two galaxies that are separated from each other by tens … [Read more...]

For new subscribers of the blog, I sometimes go slightly off-topic to share my geek love for all things space. The Antennae Galaxies are currently colliding to form one giant galaxy. The orange regions represent the original cores of both galaxies and the old stars and filaments of dust represent the brown regions. The collision first started approximately a hundred million years ago and during the course of this merge, billions of stars will be born, represented in the bright blue … [Read more...]

Sometimes I go slightly off-topic to share my geek love for all things space. Just this week astronomers have said that they have found a planet that is in what they call the "Goldilocks" zone: Not too hot. Not too cold. Just right for life. According to the AP News article, the planet rotates around a star called Gliese 581. Some interesting facts: "It is about three times the mass of Earth, slightly larger in width and much closer to its star — 14 million miles away versus 93 … [Read more...]

For the new subscribers of the blog, I sometimes go off-topic on Fridays and share my geek love of all things space. The Ant Nebula is one of my favorite pictures from the Hubble Telescope. This nebula resides in our galaxy between 3,000 and 6,000 light years from Earth. NASA released this image in Feburary 2001. To me, what is most interesting is that this plantery nebula shows the last stage in the life of a Sun-like star, which gives us a clue of our own Sun's fate … [Read more...]