Wednesday, May 16, 2007

On the splendor of the universe

I was reading this morning about the recent discovery by the Hubble Space Telescope of a ring of dark matter surrounding a distant cluster of galaxies. All that may be a little too sciencey for some of you, but I hope everyone will take a look at this image and then try to express even the smallest fraction of your awe. (Call it a writing exercise.)

When you click on the photo link, bear in mind that you're not just looking at a bunch of pretty stars. You're looking at entire galaxies. Zillions of them. There are only a handful of individual stars visible in the photo; those are on the edge of our own galaxy (you'll notice their light spread out like + signs). But note the exquisite colors and structures of the galaxies. This is one of the finest astro-photos I've ever seen.

The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.

--Psalm 19:1-2 (NIV)


5 comments:

Katie Alender said...

This puts me in mind of the Martin Luther quote: "If you could understand a single grain of wheat, you would die of wonder."

Shauna said...

Amen! Thank you, Brenda, for posting that picture. It took my breath away.

pacatrue said...

Aye. It is a tremendous photo. It looks like an artist's rendering in fact, the colors are so brilliant.

Mary L. Briggs said...

How beautiful. There are no words that can adequately describe it! What a perfect verse to go with it. Thanks for sharing it---I would have never seen it otherwise!

Brenda Coulter said...

I'm glad you all liked it.

Paca, I believe it's a composite photo that used six different filters to approximate what it would look like to the naked eye. Light's a tricky thing, as any astronomer or photographer knows, and what you see isn't always what you get on film.
;-)

By the way, that cluster of galaxies is FIVE BILLION light-years away.