Author Archives: Chompsky

Behold: NGC 6543 – the brightest and most detailed known planetary nebula, from our perspective at least. The Cat’s Eye Nebula is composed of gas expelled in the death throes of a Sun-like star. To wit:

This nebula‘s dying central star may have produced the outer circular concentric shells by shrugging off outer layers in a series of regular convulsions. The formation of the beautiful, complex-yet-symmetric inner structures, however, is not well understood. The featured image is a composite of a digitally sharpened Hubble Space Telescope image with X-ray light captured by the orbiting Chandra Observatory. The exquisite floating space statue spans over half a light-year across. Of course, gazing into this Cat’s Eye, humanity may well be seeing the fate of our sun, destined to enter its own planetary nebula phase of evolution … in about 5 billion years.

(Image: NASA, ESA, Hubble Legacy Archive; Chandra X-ray Obs.; Rudy Pohl)

apod

Miniature ‘worlds’ inspired by Nobel Prize winning literature (‘Kristin Lavransdatter’ by Sigrid Undset (1920), and ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’ by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967)), created by French paper artists and collaborators Zim & Zou as part of ‘Sharing Worlds’ – a tolerance-themed travelling exhibition.

The exhibition ended last month but you can take a virtual tour of it here.

colossal

Sundry remarkable people and their remarkable exploits. None of whom were you. Or done by you. exurb1a sez:

Please note that this wasn’t intended to be a diatribe against critics or experts. They obviously play an important role. It was more directed at the recreational cynicism one comes across in daily life from time to time, generally pointed at young artists. I have had the privilege to meet plenty of people 1000x more talented than me, who are simultaneously doubting their abilities because of some stupid comment made by an unpleasant teacher or jaded family member.

Previously: The Last Humans Left

likecool

Irish Plogging Divas tweetz:

Grand stretch in the evening. 9:15 pm Blackrock, Co Dublin. in full ,

Save Poolbeg.

Update:

Oh.