When I’m
creating stories with SF elements I search for inspiration in many places. One
such place is the European Space Agency or ESA. It’s a good venue to find research
information and fodder for story ideas.
In this view of the Andromeda Galaxy from ESA’s Herschel space observatory, cool lanes of forming stars are revealed in the finest detail yet. Andromeda, also known as M31, is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way at a distance of 2.5 million light-years, making it an ideal natural laboratory to study star formation and galaxy evolution.
The image reveals some of the
very coldest dust in the galaxy – only a few tens of degrees above absolute
zero – red in this image.
By
comparison, warmer regions such as the densely populated central bulge, home to
older stars, take on a blue appearance.
Intricate
structure is present throughout the 200,000 light-year-wide galaxy with
star formation zones in spiral arms and at least five concentric rings,
interspersed with dark gaps where stars are present.
Host to several hundred billion stars, this image of Andromeda clearly shows that many more stars will soon spark into existence.
Following is a short excerpt; something I’ve been working on lately
Karla remotely adjusted one
of Starlab's telescopes and watched the screen fill with a dazzling light show. She maneuvered the controls for a wide angle.The distant spiral galaxy
they were observing with its brilliant hues of color, whirling circles of
light and dense arenas, came into view. Always awed by Andromeda, she sighed. If intelligent life did exist anywhere
else, she just bet it would be somewhere in the Andromeda Galaxy.
This came from my ESA research. Just wanted to share it with you.
Kaye
3 comments:
Welcome back Kaye! Yes, I believe that there are intelligent life forms out there and YES they'll be found in Andromeda and further on out there. (Looking beyond what we can see and smiling)
Interesting Dianne. And thanks for stopping by after my absence. Trying to work on what I have and then get some new material out there too. Great comeback comment!
Loved seeing how your research inspires a story nugget.
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