Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: NGC 7331 – something similar to our own Milky Way but 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Pegasus. To wit:

NGC 7331 was recognized early on as a spiral nebula and is actually one of the brighter galaxies not included in Charles Messier’s famous 18th century catalog. Since the galaxy’s disk is inclined to our line-of-sight, long telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong sense of depth. This Hubble Space Telescope close-up spans some 40,000 light-years. The galaxy’s magnificent spiral arms feature dark obscuring dust lanes, bright bluish clusters of massive young stars, and the telltale reddish glow of active star forming regions. The bright yellowish central regions harbor populations of older, cooler stars. Like the Milky Way, a supermassive black hole lies at the core of spiral galaxy NGC 7331.

(Image: ESA/Hubble & NASA/D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University))

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Behold: the south pole of the Moon. It’s up there amid the rugged lunar highlands near the top of this image captured recently from southern California. To wit:

At the Moon’s third quarter phase the lunar terminator, the sunset shadow line, is approaching from the left. The scene’s foreshortened perspective heightens the impression of a dense field of craters and makes the craters themselves appear more oval shaped close to the lunar limb. Below and left of centre is sharp-walled crater Tycho, 85 kilometres in diameter. Young Tycho’s central peak is still in sunlight, but casts a long shadow across the crater floor. The large prominent crater to the south (above) Tycho is Clavius. Nearly 231 kilometres in diameter its walls and floor are pocked with smaller, more recent, overlaying impact craters. Mountains visible along the lunar limb at the top can rise about 6 kilometres or so above the surrounding terrain.

(Image: Tom Glenn)

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Behold: the 1929 Mercedes Benz 710 SS Sport Tourer – capable of  200km/h, it was the undisputed supercar of its day and remains one of the most sought-after vehicles in the world.

With a massive 7.1 litre supercharged inline six engine capable of 200km/h this car was shipped to New York before returning to Paris, where it received bodywork from the firm Fernandez & Darrin, run by American coachbuilder Howard “Dutch” Darrin. 

Yours for a trifling €8,000,000 (if you’re lucky).

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