whoa... 'eye of God' photographed in space

[keyclone]

http://www.richardangulo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/eye-of-god_skyimage_2035_46083322.jpg ('http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/26/eye-of-god-photographed-in-space-115875-21154766/')
just a bit freaky how much it looks like a human eye.

if it blinks... well... it'd be a skidmark moment

[elsegundo]

i wonder how far it can see....

[Valdemarick]

A lot of people misunderstand the coloring they see in these space photographs. As pretty as they are, much of the time they are taken by telescopes that only detect light outside of the visible spectrum. Many of these photos are then "colorized" through post-processing as a way to distinguish the differing levels of whichever type of light they were originally taken in (radio telescopes, x-ray, gamma ray, etc...)

Still, they did do a nice job filling in the visual gaps our own eyes fail to see. :thumbup:

[Bettysue]

Well if we discount the fact that it has no pupil and, therefore, couldn't see at all I would say it can't see far due to extreme nearsightedness, because it has no retina in view :P

BTW Valdemarick ('http://www.dual-boxing.com/forums/index.php?page=User&userID=22598') thanks for explaining that, I work with satellite imagery all the time and trying to explain to people that some of the things on the display are not actually visible and have been falsely colored can be difficult at times. This image is really nothing more than a really fancy intensity plot, however, I can say that it is quite cool. However colored a bit differently it kinda loses a bit of the ooohhhh and aaahhh factor.

[Zal]

Looks like its pissed off. The way the eye is tilted a little and the red part just above it.

[Khatovar]

*Sigh* That's gorgeous. I love those images.

[Tasty]

http://www.richardangulo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/eye-of-god_skyimage_2035_46083322.jpg ('http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/02/26/eye-of-god-photographed-in-space-115875-21154766/')
just a bit freaky how much it looks like a human eye.

if it blinks... well... it'd be a skidmark moment

Sauron? ... Is that you?


:P

[moog]

That's where he went when they destroyed The Ring :)

[Kaynin]

Why is it flat. And where is the light coming from. I suppose a close sun should be responsible for the light reflecting on the nebula or whatever, but why then is it brighter in the center bits and darker at the edges? Would seem the light comes from within..

Picture just makes no sense to me.

Unless. Because of the distances light travels, the light visible from the nebula comes from a sun faaaaar behind the nebula in a straight line with earth (what are the chances of that? :P ) and therefor the phenomena is brighter in the center because those lightwaves hit us strongest. :P

Space pictures are bad for my health..

[Valdemarick]

where is the light coming from.

Unless. Because of the distances light travels, the light visible from the nebula comes...Please refer to my previous post and what Bettysue said regarding the coloration of these photos, for more information.

http://robertvaldemar.com/nbc_the_more_you_know.jpg

[Starbuck_Jones]

There isn't any sunlight like your thinking lighting it up. Chances are that nebula is huge, prolly at least the size of our solar system or even WAY WAY bigger like light years across bigger. Next as stated its false coloring. I would say its prolly an infra-red. the brighter points on the edge are where the expanding gas is bunched together and expanding out and "hotter" than the area in the center where its cooled and a more blue color. Also take that word "hot" with a grain of salt. Its not likely to be hot at all, Just warmer than the cold space around it.

After that I would guess maybe a chemical spectrograph and false color in some elements or other electromagnetic wave lengths for some flare.

[d0z3rr]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/M16_-_Eagle_nebula.jpg

[magwo]

Maybe we can catapult a halfling into it. Wait, what?

[Kaynin]

where is the light coming from.

Unless. Because of the distances light travels, the light visible from the nebula comes...Please refer to my previous post and what Bettysue said regarding the coloration of these photos, for more information.

http://robertvaldemar.com/nbc_the_more_you_know.jpg


So people color it in... Why do they then color it in against all laws of physics! My frustrations still stand. :P

I mean, whomever colored it in, had some idea of representation in mind. No? Or do they just make artsey stuff without thinking about it. ;)

[mmcookies]

kids like pretty pictures
pretty pictures of stars have a better chance of competing with American Idol and Call of Duty 4 for inspiring a kid's future

on another note, people with money like pretty pictures too

[Bettysue]

where is the light coming from.

Unless. Because of the distances light travels, the light visible from the nebula comes...Please refer to my previous post and what Bettysue said regarding the coloration of these photos, for more information.

http://robertvaldemar.com/nbc_the_more_you_know.jpg


So people color it in... Why do they then color it in against all laws of physics! My frustrations still stand. :P

I mean, whomever colored it in, had some idea of representation in mind. No? Or do they just make artsey stuff without thinking about it. ;)After staring at hundreds if not thousands of photos with no real distinction, the person doing the analysis will often color things to present the most "pleasing to the eye" result. There is no real rhyme or reason to the color in most cases, this one just seems to make the best picture. Usually a legend is attached to tell you the color temps, and of course a sizing/orientation block. So physics tells us the energy being emitted or reflected is far outside the visible range, thus, we can make it any color we want frustration inducing or otherwise :D