Angry Bird
No, not the game, the constellation or more specifically the nebula Lambda Centauri, also known as the “Running Chicken Nebula” or it could be the Angry Bird.
NASA has just released some new pictures of the nebula which as always look stunning (in my personal opinion). Pictures of stars and galaxies and so on are always amazing when you consider that the objects are light years across. The skill of the artist in giving colours to the raw images really does show through when you see such pictures.
Because the pictures are so abstract our human brain has difficulty understanding them. So it tries to produce meaning out of the randomness. Many times the picture only needs one or two key items in certain places and your brain extrapolates and fills in all the gaps and suddenly you see a monster or a cow or a chicken.
I wonder if you can see the chicken in the picture. Or maybe you see something else.
September 23, 2011 at 01:39
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“Because the pictures are so abstract our human brain has difficulty
understanding them.”
Speak for yourself, mate. I have a cosmic brain.
- September 23, 2011 at 09:08
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@Andy Buck – Perhaps it is the (hitherto undetectable)”Russell’s
Teapot”?
If so, it would require fundamental revision of the
philosophical concept of ‘unfalsifiablity’
@Michael Fowke – If you are really “Cosmic AC”, you must have already
answered “The Last Question” at least once.
Can you please reverse
entropy again, thus providing infinite amounts of clean power and stopping
this terrible ‘global warming’? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Question
- September 23, 2011 at 00:46
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Badly drawn Teapot Here, It looks like a mass of swirly colours actually I
could never figure out pictures like this.
- September 22, 2011 at 20:43
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I can’t see the chicken (more worrying – I can’t see the naked lady
either?)
For lots of other ‘space pictures’ ( a huge archive and informative
articles) try “Astronomy Photo Of the Day”
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/
- September
23, 2011 at 00:39
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Forgot all about that site. Its a good one.
- September 23, 2011 at 20:58
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With my amazing mspaint skills I give you http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/546/angrybirdspacenormal.jpg/
OK, I stopped drawing at around age 6
but maybe you will see the features when you look back at the original, I
can see the eyes, nose etc in the original, however I hear people are
predisposed to see faces in objects.
- September 22, 2011 at 20:04
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…When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and
the stars, which You have ordained…
- September 22, 2011 at 19:09
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I see a topless lady (yes, yes I know) Head almost central with two rather
pert ummm er (cold shower please) and flat stomache running centre to middle
left.
- September 22, 2011 at 17:10
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Maybe Gordon Brown’s there. For sure he’s not to be found in
Westminster.
- September 22, 2011 at 15:55
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I see an owl with a sharp beak. Or a cooked tomato you’d get at a cheap
hotel for breakfast.
The colouring isn’t so much art as science, the photo when taken is in
black or white (usually, dependent on distance) the colour is added in after.
As I recall from my days at Astronomy Club, a Spectrograph is used to measure
the wavelength of the light, different wavelengths are afforded different
colours. In this instance (again from memory) red indicates hydrogen which
seems to be prevelent in the Cooked Tomato Nebula.
Although its hard to know, those bright blue stars are probably young stars
forming from the hydrogen and other elements and compounds existing in the
nebula. There is a comforting circularity even with massive universal forces
and structures. A star dies and goes nova, it either implodes violently and
forms a neutron star or black hole or implodes then explodes even more
violently and forms a nebula from which new stars are born.
A good example of an old nebula (now classified as an open cluster as I
recall) is the seven sisters in Taurus (or the Plaiedes) With binoculars you
can still see faint whisps of nebulosity around the stars as they finish
forming. It probably used to look alot like the Blood Clot with a Beak Nebula
pictured above.
- September 21, 2011 at 22:01
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Does this recent finding offer more insight into the real purpose behind
StoneHENge..?
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