This photo of the "Sombrero Galaxy" was taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. It's called the Sombrero Galaxy because the technician to first view the photo was eating a fiesta burrito from Taco Bell.
Mark, believe it or not, the Guitar Nebula is not faked. It's created by a neutron star plowing through a dense region of gas- kind of like a boat wake.
Dennis,
I know the guitar nebula is for real. The guy who discovered it works down the stairs from me! :)
I was referring to the "photo" of the sombrero glaxy, which clearly is not a photo, though there really is such a glaxy.
FYI everyone - I downloaded this from Yahoo, which was saying it was a photo from the Hubble space telescope. It's not quite as tricked as out the space illustration things I've seen so I'm inclined to believe it's the real deal.
I stand corrected. I looked into it a bit, and this is indeed real photographic material. Unbelievable! I also figured out what fooled me at first: this is a composite image, made to look so real by expertly superimposing several other images (real telescope photos never look like this -- they capture a particular range of wavelengths and produce what is, essentially, a grey-scale map of the intensities of the light in that "band" across the field of view). Still, it's just awesome.
If you like the sombrero galaxy, then you'll love,
The Guitar Nebula
PS: there's no way that that's a photo. Artists rendition, maybe, but photo, no way!
Mark, believe it or not, the Guitar Nebula is not faked. It's created by a neutron star plowing through a dense region of gas- kind of like a boat wake.
Dennis,
I know the guitar nebula is for real. The guy who discovered it works down the stairs from me! :)
I was referring to the "photo" of the sombrero glaxy, which clearly is not a photo, though there really is such a glaxy.
FYI everyone - I downloaded this from Yahoo, which was saying it was a photo from the Hubble space telescope. It's not quite as tricked as out the space illustration things I've seen so I'm inclined to believe it's the real deal.
I stand corrected. I looked into it a bit, and this is indeed real photographic material. Unbelievable! I also figured out what fooled me at first: this is a composite image, made to look so real by expertly superimposing several other images (real telescope photos never look like this -- they capture a particular range of wavelengths and produce what is, essentially, a grey-scale map of the intensities of the light in that "band" across the field of view). Still, it's just awesome.