Spectacular VISTA of the Tarantula (new space image)

[n2doc]

Ever wanted to see a Tarantula up close? Up really close? Here’s your chance!



That is a new image of the Tarantula Nebula (ha! Got you!) from the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA survey telescope in Chile. The telescope can see in the near-infrared, just outside the range of our human vision, and is being used to map a big chunk of the southern sky.

The Tarantula is a sprawling star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small companion galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Of course, "small" is a matter of perspective; the LMC is still tens of thousands of light years across and has several billion stars in it. From its distance of 180,000 light years, the LMC appears as a smudge in the sky to the unaided eyes of southern observers.

more with links

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/08/11/spectacular-vista-of-the-tarantula/

[damntexdem]

1. Hey, I have a picture of a Costa Rican tarantula as my wall paper on a work PC.

But this spider does deserve to be on the Web.

;-)

[hyphenate]

2. You know, every time I look at one of these spectacular

photographs from space, I realize time and time again how puny and insignificant we and our home planet really are. It's not whether it's important to us, which it is, but its place in the universe is questionable in scope.

We are in no considerable way crucial in the running of the universe, and while we have obviously declared our own import, there are likely alien forms of life that would laugh at our hubris.

We are hovering on the edge of what could be a beautiful nascence of a space age, geared to learning more about the wonders of the universe, but there are so many terrible people in this world who would warp and twist that wonderment, and use it to achieve their own goals, with no thought to the higher purposes that could be done.

I had a geology teacher once who I talked with about our exploration of the stars, and he was adamantly opposed to space travel for that reason. When I asked him why, he said something to the effect that we've messed up our own planet so badly, so why should we behave any differently towards other worlds? I think he has a point, sadly, and it has made me a cynic--someone who loves what we could find in the cosmos, but deathly afraid that those with power would abuse whatever egalitarian purpose the dreamers and futurists among us would have instead.

/rant over :rant: