sharing bookmarks

http://hubblesite.org/ -- visual wavelength

http://chandra.harvard.edu/ -- x-ray

http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/-- thermal infrared

These are the last of the Great Observatories launched into space. All of them have some incredible and vibrant images of things that are real. Real shapes and forms that blow the back of your mind out with incomprehension.

How hot is a million degrees anyway? Does iron turn into platinum at that temperature?

Anyway, I’ll randomly pop into sites such as these and change the background on my desktop to an image. I like pretty images of chaos. It’s a nice juxtaposition.

Here is my current, Abell 520 :

“A complicated collision of galaxy clusters” is what they are calling it. At any rate, our taxpayer funds have been spent wisely on data management. The databases available through these sites are super-deep rabbit holes of galactic expansionism.

I'd like to make calendars with some of the best. Since the data is public we can profit from the sale. I called the public relations office once. It's cool, we can copy with attribution.