I Had No Idea

image via this article

I'm not sure why or what it is I'm feeling, but when I look at this recent image of a new star cluster from NASA, my heart beats faster in my chest and my eyes begin to sting from tears. Hubble has got to be one of my favourite inventions ever.

Image via this article

The next picture, of the far side of the moon,  catches my breath, too. I don't know why, there's just such an undeniability about it.  You look at it and you realise, wow, we really are surrounded by cold. vast. space.  The bright star at the top is Venus.

Thanks to the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), NASA is now getting more clear, detailed images of the moon than ever before. According to this article in Space.com they can now see individual boulders; rilles (sinuous channels that look like river beds or lava tubes.  Umm...Tremors anyone?);

Rilles

they've discovered the lost Russian robotic rover Lunokhod 1, missing since 1970 (! Can you believe it?! The whole idea just captures the imagination! I hope it's been collecting data all this time!); and they can even see where the astronauts walked (sorry conspiracy theorists.... oh wait, maybe they faked these photos.... but they would've known we would think that, so therefore we cannot....wait a min....they only think we guessed wrong, that's what's so funny!.....never go against a Sicilian when death is on the line!)

What's even more cool, is now that they've amassed all this fresh information, they could use the public's help in analyzing the photos and counting boulders, etc.  How fun is that?!  I'm so going to do that.

Cat's Eye

This is a straight on edge view of a galaxy. I know it's two years old but I've been saving it in case I ever blogged. The image says it all; I'm totally speechless. I feel the same reverence for the Hubble as I do for large old trees.