Load warning Pictures of beautiful objects in space

[Kyng]

One of our oldest threads on the old forum was this one, used for posting beautiful objects in space. Now, here's a new thread, where you can continue that good work!

I'll start with the following iconic image of the Pillars of Creation, within the Eagle Nebula: 


[small](Click to enlarge; Source: NASA; Public domain image)[/small]

[Detective Osprey]

I was going to post this. And the same image too haha.

Mine has to be Enceledus 

[Detective Osprey]

Bumping because I think it was forgotten about.

Cygnus Loop:

[Nick]

That's here. That's home. That's us. On it, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever lived, lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful child, every mother and father, every inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

 The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and in triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of the dot on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner of the dot. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

 Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It's been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

 — Carl Sagan, speech at Cornell University, October 13, 1994

[Kyng]

Wow, love it. Quite humbling - especially for those who think they're at the centre of the universe . 

(And he said that on my birthday too?!)

[Nick]

Wow, love it. Quite humbling - especially for those who think they're at the centre of the universe . 

(And he said that on my birthday too?!)

He also said it in his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space, as well as in both renditions of the TV series Cosmos, such as here:

[Kyng]

Here's a photo called "Transport the Soul", of an astronomer standing at the edge of a cliff, preparing to examine a nebula through his telescope: 


(Source: Brad Goldpaint / Royal Museums Greenwich)

It was taken by Brad Goldpaint, and it was the winner of the Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2018 competition (yes, another of these ). More of the winners in different subcategories can be found in that link .

[Detective Osprey]

The exposure on that is incredible. He must have super patient.

[Kyng]

Yeah, he must. Then again I guess there's not a lot else to do out in the wilderness, beyond standing and admiring the scenery !

[Kyng]

Here's an image that's been making the rounds on the news lately. It's of the Korolev crater, close to Mars's north pole:


(Source: ESA / The Guardian)

The crater is 50km across, and the ice is 1.8km thick. That's a lot of ice !