February 07, 2006

Bears in Space!

Today's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) is of Thor's Helmet in H-Alpha, which is actually the APOD of the day for Feb.2nd, my birthday. This Nebula is about 15,000 light-years from Earth's position in space and in size is actually twice that, about 30,000 light-years across. Sometimes these measurements make me vomit. They seem inconceivable, or at least mind-boggling.

For some reason the man who discovered this Nebula, Don Goldman, thinks it looks like the Norse god, Thor's helmet. I beg to differ! Nebula watching is a lot like cloud watching, except the speed at which aNebula moves is imperceptible to our eyes at this vast distance. I clearly see a bear. And for some odd reason he has a rather bright fire-fly in his stomach. The bear's head is somewhat obscrured by an even stranger looking bear cub's head with two beady little eyes just flowting there. No, I'm not high today. Perhaps the bear has it's cub in it's mouth and is carrying it away to safety. That's it, yes. That's what I see.

What do you see?