Majestic Hubble Image of Birth of Stars Makes for Great Wallpaper
by Kris on 4/26/2007 (6)
 | Oooo, perdy. | | Tuesday NASA scientists released an amazingly detailed image depicting the conditions in which stars are born and die. The image is made up of a series of 48 pictures take by the orbiting Hubble Telescope and depicts star birth in a level of detail never before seen by man or goat.
"In short, it would make for an excellent desktop wallpaper," said astronomer Nathan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, the lead investigator in this work. "It's very pretty, the kind of wallpaper that would make friends and coworkers take notice, maybe even get you that promotion at work."
"If one of my employees had this image as the wallpaper on their computer, I would definitely give them a promotion," said Office Warehut junior assistant manager Brian Cole. "Of course, they would have to be fired first for breaking our company policy of total conformity."
The image provides a view spanning a distance of fifty light years across of the Carina Nebula, which is a pretty big distance last we checked. The scene in question is so majestic that it makes the often-fabled and more famous Orion Nebula look like Emanuel Lewis by comparison.
"What you are seeing in the image is hot ionized gas, the kind of gas that just screams ‘Stick me on your computer and place icons on top of my sexy body'," Smith added.
The image has been released in formats that are compatible with Windows and Apple platforms and promises a Linux version soon. NASA has assured consumers that their wallpaper is 100% compliant with Windows Vista.
Eta Carinae, one of the dozen or more stars in the nebula estimated to be 50 to 100 times the mass of the sun, is in the final stages of its short life span and will soon go supernova. Already wallpaper junkies worldwide are messing themselves in anticipation.
"Oh god, it's so hot," said wallpaper fan Derek James. "Seriously it is, like billions of degrees."
The image was released to coincide with the 17th anniversary of launching Hubble into orbit to provide scientists with clear and deep views of the universe that would make for some kick ass imagery. It is the largest panoramic images taken by Hubble since that of a pre-gastric bypass Al Roker.
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