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Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

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Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

#3

Post by mk_stjames »

The youtube link to a 'zoom' in video to the image:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkVprNB5XbI

What is really, really neat to notice isn't just the detail in that final image.... look behind it, and there are whole edge-on spiral galaxies in the distance. Not stars. Galaxies.

The nebula is about 1375 light years away. Those galaxies in the distance.... are billions of light years away. It's hard to comprehend.

Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

#5

Post by lionkor »

mk_stjames wrote: post #3

The youtube link to a 'zoom' in video to the image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkVprNB5XbI What is really, really neat to notice isn't just the detail in that final image.... look behind it, and there are whole edge-on spiral galaxies in the distance. Not stars. Galaxies. The nebula is about 1375 light years away. Those galaxies in the distance.... are billions of light years away. It's hard to comprehend.

There really is a lot of stuff left to see for the first time

Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

#6

Post by qwertox »

It's so very unlikely that there aren't millions of other lifeforms out there.

Sometimes I think that life could well have been just my soul and no one else, but here I am sharing this world with billions of other people, trillions of other lifeforms on this planet alone. So it is possible that more than one lifeform exists, that they share this universe and communicate in it. Why shouldn't this also be possible on millions of other earth-like planets out there?

Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

#8

Post by kibwen »

qwertox wrote: post #6

It's so very unlikely that there aren't millions of other lifeforms out there. Sometimes I think that life could well have been just my soul and no one else, but here I am sharing this world with billions of other people, trillions of other lifeforms on this planet alone. So it is possible that more than one lifeform exists, that they share this universe and communicate in it. Why shouldn't this also be possible on m…

Of course there are other lifeforms out there, it's statistically implausible for it to be otherwise. What's also implausible is that, given the impossible vastness and hostility of interstellar space, that any will ever manage to contact us, specifically. Fortunately, we've got lots of crazy lifeforms here on Earth to keep us occupied, if we can take a moment to stop extincting them as fast as we possibly can.

Re: Webb captures iconic Horsehead Nebula in unprecedented detail

#10

Post by itishappy »

Wow. The NIRCam image is probably going to be the most exciting new photo, but I can't get over how well MIRI reveals the internal structure of the nebula.

NIRCam: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Horsehead_...

MIRI: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Horsehead_...

Comparison: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2024/04/Slider_Too...

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