Think Big

Really Big


Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the spiral galaxy known as ESO 498-G5. One interesting feature of this galaxy is that its spiral arms wind all the way into the center, so that ESO 498-G5's core looks like a bit like a miniature spiral galaxy. This sort of structure is in contrast to the elliptical star-filled centers (or bulges) of many other spiral galaxies, which instead appear as glowing masses.

Astronomers refer to the distinctive spiral-like bulge of galaxies such as ESO 498-G5 as disc-type bulges, or pseudobulges, while bright elliptical centers are called classical bulges. Observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, which does not have to contend with the distorting effects of Earth's atmosphere, have helped to reveal that these two different types of galactic centers exist. These observations have also shown that star formation is still going on in disc-type bulges and has ceased in classical bulges. This means that galaxies can be a bit like Russian matryoshka dolls: classical bulges look much like a miniature version of an elliptical galaxy, embedded in the center of a spiral, while disc-type bulges look like a second, smaller spiral galaxy located at the heart of the first — a spiral within a spiral.

ESO 498-G5 is located around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Pyxis (The Compass). This image is made up of exposures in visible and infrared light taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The field of view is approximately 3.3 by 1.6 arcminutes. Full story at NASA

Smaller Subjects



You might recall in yesterday’s blog I showed a picture of a mystery bug and decided to send the picture to What’s That Bug to find out what it was.

This morning, I got an answer from whatsthatbug.com and they said;

Hi Phil,
This is an immature Scudder's Bush Katydid in the genus Scudderia, and members of the genus are found throughout North America.  You can compare your photo to this image from BugGuide.  This species is quite common in the garden outside our Mt Washington, Los Angeles offices.  Katydids feed on leaves and blossoms and the Scudder's Bush Katydids seem quite fond of the blossoms on the rose bushes in our garden.  They are never plentiful enough to do any major damage, and we are content to allow them to feed and grow.  Just last week we photographed another Katydid nymph in our garden, and we believe it is a Broad Winged Katydid  

You can see the letter I sent, my Scudderia picture, their Katydid pictures, and further information HERE.



While out back, looking at Dorothy’s garden today, this Scudders Bush Katydid nymph was kind enough to be perched on one of the lilies that I photographed. How convenient. I can show it here to illustrate my latest educational adventure in bugdom terminology.



This brightly colored ‘driveway’ rose caught the light, and my attention, from yards away.

I took pictures before and after the Treehouse Cabaret Monday Afternoon Music Fest. It was convenient because some of the flowers that were unlit by the sun before were fully lit after the music.



I feel really fortunate to have all these beautiful flowers and gardens to take pictures of on days like today when it’s a bit too hazy for clear images of the surrounding landscape and mountains.



I like the blue color of these little flowers that were growing in Diane’s garden, behind, ‘A’ building.

And, on the theme of galaxies within galaxies, I noticed these flowers within the flower of this blooming onion;



I put more of my pictures from today on the HappyPhil 500pix page and you’re welcome to go there to see them.

500px uses a high resolution format in which I like to show images. There are some very good photographers who display their work there.



That’s all for today. I hope you had an enjoyable, and memorable Memorial Day weekend.

Today’s Video;




Infinite Possibilities