One great thing about the 21st century: humanity can appreciate the cosmos like never before.

Along with increasingly affordable high-powered telescopes, a new artistic field has come into being: astrophotography.

Connecticut-based Robert Gendler is one of the best atsrophotographers in the world; his work has been featured 63 times on NASA’s Astronomy Photo of the Day website.

Gendler’s latest APOD contribution is this succulent image of the Triffid Nebula. Cosmic eye-candy. Enjoy!

The Triffid Nebula; photo by Robert Gendler

Last November I blogged about a jaw-dropping image of the Milky Way by the American photographer Wally Pacholka – see Amazing. He’s developed a stunning way of photographing the night sky that gives a sense of three dimensionality.

According to his website, NASA has now published 34 of Mr Pacholka’s photographs in its Astronomy Picture of the Day series – more than any other photographer.

Today’s APOD – The Milky Way Over Devil’s Tower – is the latest. Devil’s Tower in Wyoming will be familiar to movie goers; it was the scenic backdrop for Stephen Speilberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The Milky Way Over Devil's Tower by Wally Pacholka

A thousand parsecs hence, within our own galaxy and appearing in the constellation of Gemini, a spectacular event is in progress.

The Eskimo Nebula

If mainstream astonomical theory is correct, when we look at the Eskimo Nebula we’re witnessing a late stage in the evolution of a star similar to our own sun. As it turns into a superdense white dwarf, the star ejects large amounts of gaseous matter into the surrounding space. The afterglow fades slowly.

This nebula was first catalogued in the late 18th century by the brilliant musician and astronomer William Herschel. Now, with photos from the Hubble telescope, we can observe it’s ghostly magnificence better than ever before.

Greedy, bellicose idiots, scrapping to snatch unfair portions of the spoils of mortal existence, would do well to bookmark NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website and visit often.

We need to turn swords into ploughshares, missile-launchers into telescopes.

I wouldn’t normally waste time pricking the bubble of annoyances such as Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, a science popularizer and purported polymath and sceptic(!) who’s featured regularly on TV screens and radios in Australia.

Dr Karl Kruszelnicki; scientist and story-teller

I happen to think he’s a posturing know-all. I suspect he may fantasize about his ancestors. But these are minor issues in the greater scheme of things. In any case, I’m far from perfect myself. It’s generally wise to avoid criticizing the frailty of fellow human beings – without good reason. Misuse of power is usually the reason.

Kruszelnicki, whose screen name is ‘Dr Karl’, does not – as far as I’m aware – abuse power on a grand scale. Unlike Australia’s former Prime Minister, he hasn’t ordered troops to invade other countries on false pretenses. The man is no war criminal. He’s no big deal at all, really. So why write an article that pricks his bubble?

My rather indirect complaint is that Dr Karl lends his name and reputation to a belief system that ends up as a gulag. In that respect, he’s not alone – far from it! He is part of the norm on the ABC and the BBC. It’s the norm throughout the western mass media. But it’s a norm that should be challenged.

Dr Karl isn’t a jailer. But his personal family tales contribute to the corpus of unquestioned received wisdom that helps rationalize the actions of jailers. For that reason, reviewing the plausibility of his own narrative is not an act of spite: it’s in the public interest.

The smaller of the two moons of Mars

This photo of Deimos was featured recently on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website, which says: “Deimos is one of the smallest known moons in the Solar System measuring only about 15 kilometers across. The diminutive Martian moon was discovered in 1877″.

AbsoluteAstronomy.com explains: “In Greek mythology, Deimos was the personification of dread. He was the son of Ares and Aphrodite. He, his brother Phobos and the goddess Enyo accompanied Ares into battle, as well as his father’s attendants, Trembling, Fear, Dread and Panic. His Roman equivalent was Formido or Metus. Asaph Hall (a 19th century American astronomer), who discovered the moons of Mars, named one Deimos, and the other Phobos.”

A recent entry in the Planetary Society website has more:

Deimos is relatively poorly studied because all modern Mars spacecraft orbit at altitudes much lower than Deimos’ 20,000 kilometers. Since Deimos, like nearly every moon in the solar system (including our own), is tidally locked to its planet, that means that all orbiters see only one face of the moon, the “sub-Mars hemisphere,” and that at a great distance. Phobos orbits much closer to Mars (at 9,400 kilometers), which is still above the altitude of the circular, polar orbiters like Mars Global Surveyor, Odyssey, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but it’s below the apoapsis of Mars Express, and is now being well mapped from all sides.

Our Galaxy

Two-Armed Spiral Milky Way: a CalTech artist’s illustration of our galaxy, portrayed from a view perpendicular to the galactic spirals.

Our sun is located just to the right above the Persius Arm.

The best thing about our galaxy is that we’re inside it.

This is the most jaw-dropping photo of the Milky Way I’ve ever seen. Kudos to Wally Pacholka. It’s for sale HERE – along with other amazing space photos.

If anyone knows of a more awesome astronomical pic, please share it.