When Hubble Opened its New Eyes

http://twitter.com/andromedaswake
The final image is η (Eta) Carinae, a pair of massive and extremely volatile variable stars at a distance of 7,500 ly. The larger of the two, η Car A, is thought to be close to the end of its life. The image was taken with WFPC2 before it was replaced by WFPC3.

Click this link for the press release at Hubblesite.org:
http://www.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/

Music is by Starsky Partridge.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• NASA
• ESA
• Hubble
• Space
• Telescope
• HST
• Astronomy
• WFPC3
• ACS
• COS
• Wide
• Field
• Planetary
• Camera
• Advanced
• for
• Surveys
• Cosmic
• Origins
• Spectrograph
• Stephan's
• Quintet
• Carina
• Nebula
• Jupiter
• Impact
• Eta
• Carinae
• Supernova
• Remnant
• Omega
• Centauri
• Butterfly

[AnonymousDiv0]

Confirmed, phasers to HELL YES, Captain!

What a universe. It takes some ballsy arrogance to think that it exists solely for the benefit of lifeforms on one insignificant mudball.

[garrettducat]

7,500 ly seems so tiny in this scale. Then think about the fact that 7,500 years ago light left that star to reach Earth. What happened 7,500 years ago? The Sumerians, basically the beginning of written history.

Really puts humanity into perspective.

[AnonymousDiv0]

@danielkirk1

Your logic fails to compute. The FACT is that the universe is far, far more vast than humans could ever hope to explore and that the huge majority has no relevance to our planet whatsoever. I take it that you are suggesting that a god magically created everything - in which case the god included a massive amount of pointless and useless junk for no reason, OR that the universe cannot have been made solely for us and our little mudball.

[danielkirk1]

@AnonymousDiv0 On the contrary, It takes some ballsy arrogance to think "it" came from nothing.

[dezertmiragez]

This video is fantastic. It brought a tear to my eye. 

[HighPoweredLasers]

4:29 looks like "Gonzo" using a finger to tell someone to come here!

[ejenglin]

That we insignificant apes could live to witness such awesome beauty is truly the most wondrous thing. Religion could never give us this kind of vision, could never match this sight, and could never encompass these ideas. Religion retards growth, science promotes it. No religion could ever move me to tears like mere images of the vast glory and wonder of space.

[rkyeun]

@invadercheeze

I've never found the waste of valuable goods on cult indoctrination a beautiful thing in any sense, so I suppose the reality's even more beautiful for me.

[cj431464]

is a same

[milojetkins]

Thanks Man

[shhewitt]

@rrrandommman You've probably figured it out by now, but if you have UT2004 still on your hard drive, browse to the UT2004\Music directory and play "level8"

[invadercheeze]

2:03 and onward literally had my mouth gaping and my eyes tearing. There is more beauty in those pictures than in every gold-leafed, jewel studded, marble-paved church, temple, synagogue, or mosque on the entire planet.