Most astounding picture you've ever seen

[Greni]

Awesome thread you made here.
This one always does it for me; nothing visually breathtaking, but simple and elegant, and made many people think:
[Pic]

Thanks, and can I get some background info on the pic? I don't know what I'm looking at here.

Sorry, I'm used to being around complete space nerds.

This is The Pale Blue Dot. That little dot up to the right in a little light beam. That's Earth, that's us. That picture was taken by Voyager 1, near Jupiter as it was leaving the Solar System, by the personal request of Carl Sagan.

It was the first picture to make us realize that we are in fact tiny. Gave us a bit of perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

I urge you to search youtube for it, really nice videos there that explain it way better than I can, if you are interested of course.

Edit: Ninja'd to the answer, and quoting the man himself! Can't do better than that.

 

[Ekit]

Snippy snip

Holy shit! Where was that taken from? I'd like to know when people ask where my new screen saver was taken from.

It's taken from a speech by Carl Sagan at Cornell University in October, 1994.

 

[Rylot]

snip

I meant where was the picture taken from, but the post above covers that.

 

[repeating integers]

This one is quite impressive, and provides a change to the astronomy theme running through the thread!

Since there is more than enough deep space images in this thread, I nominate this choice photograph from a place a little closer to home...

Holy fuck indeed...

Jesus fuck. Those are incredible.

Whenever I feel really helpless, apathetic, or inhibited, I ask myself what was stopping this man.

That one, meanwhile, is so inspiring. I could never be as brave as that man.

 

[mikey7339]

-snip-

Does anyone know his name or is he just "The Tiananmen Square Guy"?

There is speculation but no one knows who it is. I think he 'dissapeared' shortly after the Tienanmen Square incident.

 

[JesterRaiin]

My 5 cents...

http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/52238main_MM_image_feature_89_jw4.jpg

Also, am i the only one who perceives "Horsehead nebula" like this ?

http://i.imgur.com/e2TZA.jpg

 

[Colour Scientist]

Shnip

Strange. Loads of awe-inspiring pictures of the universe and someone posts a picture from home. Even though I have nothing to do with it, I can't help but feel a little smug.

 

[repeating integers]

Also, am i the only one who perceives "Horsehead nebula" like this ?

http://i.imgur.com/e2TZA.jpg

Le image is le broke. Brilliant first picture though.

thought for the day: ssuguat (way

Edit: Le image is no longer le broke.

 

[steeple]

[snip]

I could never be as brave as that man.

I think the hole point of the picture is that you cant plan bravery, but instead just allow yourself to act the right way when the moment comes. do you think if this guy was told in the morning he would face a column of tanks, he's say "yeah that makes sense"?

OT: seeing as my desktop picture is already taken (the picture with the earth's atmosphere showing while being illuminated by the sun's rays), I'll stick with another space-related picture...

Spoiler: the only thing to describe it would be: the eye of god

 

[Lewghis]

did you know that those (pillars of creation) don't exist anymore? they were destroyed by the shock wave from a supernova some six thousand years ago but we still see them due to the light not having reached us yet. in a thousand years or so you'll see them being destroyed.

enjoy them while you can!

 

[repeating integers]

did you know that those (pillars of creation) don't exist anymore? they were destroyed by the shock wave from a supernova some six thousand years ago but we still see them due to the light not having reached us yet. in a thousand years or so you'll see them being destroyed.

enjoy them while you can!

Oh no, only 1000 years left for me to look at them? Quickly! Time is short!

 

[LarenzoAOG]

-snip-

Does anyone know his name or is he just "The Tiananmen Square Guy"?

There is speculation but no one knows who it is. I think he 'dissapeared' shortly after the Tienanmen Square incident.

Damn, not surprised, but it seems so disrespecful to call him "Tiananmen Square Guy" or "Tank Man".

 

[LarenzoAOG]

Awesome thread you made here.
This one always does it for me; nothing visually breathtaking, but simple and elegant, and made many people think:
[Pic]

Thanks, and can I get some background info on the pic? I don't know what I'm looking at here.

Sorry, I'm used to being around complete space nerds.

This is The Pale Blue Dot. That little dot up to the right in a little light beam. That's Earth, that's us. That picture was taken by Voyager 1, near Jupiter as it was leaving the Solar System, by the personal request of Carl Sagan.

It was the first picture to make us realize that we are in fact tiny. Gave us a bit of perspective.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot

I urge you to search youtube for it, really nice videos there that explain it way better than I can, if you are interested of course.

Edit: Ninja'd to the answer, and quoting the man himself! Can't do better than that.

Another poster gave me the run-down, the picture is much more impressive now.

 

[darksakul]

Man, I had this insane photo from the cliff of Dun Aenghus.

By the way, you know that those eagle nebula picks are, well, enhanced? With potoshop?

Not photoshop per sey, but that image was taken on both the visible spectrum of light, infrared and ultra violet light to catch details visible light alone can not, then the 3 images are overlay on each other and some color enhancements to catch every detail.

Keep in mind not all of that nebula gives off light, much of it is reflected from near by stars. And some of those clouds absorb light, so other spectrums are used to see the whole thing.

Kinda like you are in a woods with a small flash light that takes 2 double A batteries. You do not see much, and it makes for dull photos.
Now if we took that image and over lay with a image from lets say a night vision camera, do some minor color corrections to make the details pop. It is still the same night time forest but now it is more interesting looking.

So yes the image has been enhanced but only so we can see more than just a grey blur on a all black screen

 

[SilentCom]

Since there is more than enough deep space images in this thread, I nominate this choice photograph from a place a little closer to home...

Holy fuck indeed...

I used this as my wallpaper a little while back. No explanation is necessary.

 

[Raven's Nest]

did you know that those (pillars of creation) don't exist anymorehey were destroyed by the shock wave from a supernova some six thousand years ago but we still see them due to the light not having reached us yet. in a thousand years or so you'll see them being destroyed.

enjoy them while you can!

If nothing travels faster than light and we wont see the effect for a thousand years, how do we know it happened?

Oh wait, i imagine the supernova occured a thousand light years closer to us than the nebula perhaps?

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

I think our little, insignificant, blue planet has some magic of its own...

Aurora Borealis is one of them...

and my favorite mountain (the Monviso) at dawn

I've seen it "life" plenty of times and it's just rendering you speechless every single time...

 

[Episode42]

Not necessarily an 'astounding' picture, but one that means a lot to me

Spoiler: My beautiful girlfriend trying to blow bubbles.

Also

Spoiler: A photo taken from a VW Beetle in motion

[http://www.flickr.com/photos/crystalpyramid/5123276530/]

Apologies for the fact these are both taken by me, i'm not trying to self-promote, just thought you guys might like to see them.

 

[Greni]

did you know that those (pillars of creation) don't exist anymorehey were destroyed by the shock wave from a supernova some six thousand years ago but we still see them due to the light not having reached us yet. in a thousand years or so you'll see them being destroyed.

enjoy them while you can!

If nothing travels faster than light and we wont see the effect for a thousand years, how do we know it happened?

Oh wait, i imagine the supernova occured a thousand light years closer to us than the nebula perhaps?

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/11/image-of-the-day-the-pillars-of-creation-destroyed-by-a-supernova-explosion-6000-years-ago.html

"A new, striking image from Spitzer shows the intact dust towers next to a giant cloud of hot dust thought to have been scorched by the blast of a star that exploded, or went supernova. Astronomers speculate that the supernova's shock wave could have already reached the dusty towers, causing them to topple about 6,000 years ago. However, because light from this region takes 7,000 years to reach Earth, we won't be able to capture photos of the destruction for another millenium or so."

Very interesting that.

 

[Raven's Nest]

http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/11/image-of-the-day-the-pillars-of-creation-destroyed-by-a-supernova-explosion-6000-years-ago.html

"A new, striking image from Spitzer shows the intact dust towers next to a giant cloud of hot dust thought to have been scorched by the blast of a star that exploded, or went supernova. Astronomers speculate that the supernova's shock wave could have already reached the dusty towers, causing them to topple about 6,000 years ago. However, because light from this region takes 7,000 years to reach Earth, we won't be able to capture photos of the destruction for another millenium or so."

Very interesting that.

It seems my comments were also made on the article's comments. The evidence of radiation reaching us first makes the theory make more sense now thanks to one of the commenters on the article.

But yes, intriguing nonetheless.