Americana: Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope took the photograph of this nebula about 5500 light years away. That's either a heck of a big bang, or the creation of one powerful God. Uploaded to Flickr by zen724.
Remember all the hoopla back in April, 1990 when the Hubble Space Telescope was launched from the space shuttle? Yeah, I don’t either. Unless you’re a space nerd (and I mean that with more respect than it may appear), you didn’t even notice.
But the pictures the Hubble has taken are nothing short of remarkable. Whether you believe the universe began by creation or a big bang, there’s no denying the incredible size of our universe, as verified by the HST’s images. Consider that a light year is about 5.8 trillion miles. Now consider that the HST has shown images that are 10-15 billion light years away. That’s either one incredible bang – or one amazingly powerful God.
Nebula NGC 6302 with its butterfly wings of 36,000-degree gas. Uploaded by popsci.com.
Iridescent glory of nearby helix nebula. Uploaded by hubblesite.org.
The Spirograph nebula. Uploaded by hubblesitedotorg
The Cat's Eye Nebula: Dying star creates fantasy-like sculpture of gas and dust. Uploaded by hubblesite.org.
Robin, you’ve hit on one of my soft spots! As an amateur astronomer, I am one of those space nerds who remembers when Hubble was launched and when we used to get the NASA channel, I watched the repairs to it. Astronaut Story Musgrave is the one who did the EVA’s and I have an autographed, inscribed photo of him. Yup! Space nerd! 🙂
I’m not a space nerd, but I do believe in an awesome God, and also believe He has a great sense of humor. To think, he gave man the ability to build this telescope, just so we could have a photograph of the day he created the universe. How incredible is that?