As we look at the night sky, it is only a miniscule area of this vast universe of ours.
The stars that we see may be thousands of light years away, but they are still close neighbours in our vast universe.

The hubble space telescope circles the Earth free of distortion caused by our atmosphere, revealing a universe of amazing complexity, mystery and profound beauty.

Here are some images taken by the hubble space telescope from the book:
"hubble, the mirror on the universe"
By: Robin Kerrod
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The important thing is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
One cannot help but be in awe when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of reality.
It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of the mystery every day.
~Albert Einstein

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The Crab Nebula.
The remnants of a supernova seen nearly a thousand years ago, is a writhing mass of expanding gas with a pulsar at its center.

[This message was edited by Inda on Monday December 1st, 2003 at 05:38 PM.]

Ponderous Pillar, names for its striking shape, The Cone Nebula is a huge pillar of gas and dust.
It is lit up by ultraviolet radiation from young, hot stars from behind.

Hot stuff, a Wolf-Rayet star ejects vast amounts of matter into space at speeds of more than 100,000 mph. Wolf-Rayet stars are relatively rare. They are super hot and short lived. They have a surface temperature of 90.000 degrees F, almost ten times hotter than the sun.

The Retina glows in all colors of the rainbow. It has been dubbed the Retina Nebula because the intricate tendrils of material we see have been compared with those in the eye's retina.

In The Hourglass, the white dwarf star MyCn 18 lies at the heart of the Hourglass Nebula, some 8000 light years away. It lies a bit off center-this suggests that it may have a faint companion.

The Great Spiral in Andromeda is the most famous of all the outer galaxies. It appears to have two major spiral arms. Seen here are also the two satellite galaxies - M32 close in and NGC 205 further out.

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.
~Albert Einstein

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[This message was edited by Inda on Saturday November 29th, 2003 at 05:02 PM.]

Thank you dearest Inda
for this beautiful reminder
of where we are

Love,
Lilie

Beautiful pictures Inda! Wow! Galactically awesome!!! he he..

Here is a discussion forum "Space Daily"

http://ibpro.ikonboard.com/spacemessageboard/ikonboard.cgi?s=4d828ad759d95869e99f89a0f24427f5

And from them I found this free software (for Windows only) that lets you make your own Universe Images! Here it is:

http://www.diardsoftware.com/

Enjoy! Love and lightbeams, Teo

Teo Barry Vincent IV Composer Performer Sound-Designer & Information Systems Support

Writings: Third Millennium Thinking, Lyrics (PDF file)

Forums: Givnology (by Teo), Unkle Bobs, IAM-Simple, CuteFamilyPets, PagenPoet, NewsForNow, Infopop, Teodor's index @ Deepak Chopras

WellBeingCreativity poems+music+images

"When we appreciate our diversity, we have abundance!"

Thank you Inda and Teo.

I am always amazed when I look at the sky that what I see is only a miniscule fraction of the whole thing.

This material is very beautiful and interesting; I will come back here when I have a little more time.

Sue

Thank you for all these beautiful images and the websites. I will come back at lunchtime.
The universe is so beautiful, but it has a lot of mystery and unknown. I wonder if we will ever be able to travel to other galaxies?

Vicky

Thank you Everyone for your replies, and a special thanks to Teo for adding all those fabulous links.

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The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul?
~Oscar Wilde

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Thank you for sharing the images of the universe. I keep forgetting how beautiful it is.
The book looks interesting.
Teo's websites are nice also.

Gisele

Here is some update from Hubble.

Images are from National Geographic, February 2010.

Carina Nebula, 7,500 light years from Earth.
Hubble can see more clearly than ever into the dark corners of the universe, like this pillar of dust and gas.

Stephan's Quintet:
This bluish spiral is 40 million light-years away.

The distant galaxies warm hues mean their stars are older.

Butterfly Nebula:
The dying stars at the center of this nebula sweep hot gases into lacy wings trillions of miles across.

Here we see massed stars in the Omega Centauri globular cluster.

Thank you for adding to this topic Inda.

I am quite fascinated by what the Hubble telescope allows us to see.

Love,
yoko

Thank you for this update.
These are wonderful and amazing images.

Love,
Vicky