Cool Pic of the Day [closed]

[NineTails]

Breaking the sound barrier!

[Absent Friend]

"The Spell IV" from H.R. Giger



His artwork's been used by metal bands, such as Celtic Frost and Carcass. Badass!

[Armanoïd]

MOC Image m1501228b

"http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/html/m15012/m1501228.html"



MOC Image M0400291
"http://msss.com/moc_gallery/ab1_m04/images/M0400291.html"




MOC Image m0400291a

"http://ida.wr.usgs.gov/fullres/divided/m04002/m0400291a.jpg"

[javalizer]

Fuck that biatchhh

[koffieboon]

Explanation: It looks like a double comet, but Comet PanSTARRS (C/2011 L4) is just offering skygazers a Messier moment. Outward bound and fading in this starry scene, the well-photographed comet is remarkably similar in brightness to M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. Tracking through northern skies just below the galaxy, the comet was captured as local midnight approached on April 3. Both comet and galaxy were visible to the eye and are immersed in the faint glow of northern lights. Our own Milky Way galaxy arcs over the snowy field near Tänndalen, Sweden. Double star cluster h and chi Persei can be spotted along the Milky Way's arc high above the comet/galaxy pair. Follow the arc to bright Deneb, alpha star of the constellation Cygnus, at the right edge of the frame.

[Absent Friend]

A dying white dwarf star.

[Absent Friend]

A bunch of "Did you know-s?"

[koffieboon]

M64: The Black Eye Galaxy



Explanation: This beautiful, bright, spiral galaxy is Messier 64, often called the Black Eye Galaxy or the Sleeping Beauty Galaxy for its heavy-lidded appearance in telescopic views. M64 is about 17 million light-years distant in the otherwise well-groomed northern constellation Coma Berenices. In fact, the Red Eye Galaxy might also be an appropriate moniker in this colorful composition of narrow and wideband images. The enormous dust clouds obscuring the near-side of M64's central region are laced with the telltale reddish glow of hydrogen associated with star forming regions. But they are not this galaxy's only peculiar feature. Observations show that M64 is actually composed of two concentric, counter-rotating systems of stars, one in the inner 3,000 light-years and another extending to about 40,000 light-years and rotating in the opposite direction. The dusty eye and bizarre rotation is likely the result of a billion year old merger of two different galaxies.

[koffieboon]

Comet PANSTARRS and the Andromeda Galaxy



Explanation: Currently, comet PANSTARRS is passing nearly in front of the galaxy Andromeda. Coincidentally, both comet and galaxy appear now to be just about the same angular size. In physical size, even though Comet PANSTARRS is currently the largest object in the Solar System with a tail spanning about 15 times the diameter of the Sun, it is still about 70 billion times smaller than the Andromeda galaxy (M31). The above image was captured on March 30, near Syktyvkar, Russia. As C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) on the lower left recedes from the Sun and dims, it is returning to the northerly direction whence it came. When the comet will return is currently unknown, although humans may have merged with computers by then.

[Armanoïd]

don't laugh