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Painting Across Astronomical Units

What we find in space continues to challenge our imaginations, and we haven’t even discovered extraterrestrial life yet. Last week,  in Caleb Scharf’s post Astrobiology Roundup: Planets, Moons, and Stinky Comets, he featured the bizarre visualization above.

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American



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What we find in space continues to challenge our imaginations, and we haven’t even discovered extraterrestrial life yet.

Last week, in Caleb Scharf’s post Astrobiology Roundup: Planets, Moons, and Stinky Comets, he featured the bizarre visualization above. Burning space gases often seem blended and painterly to my eye, like an oil painting on a vacuum canvas. Nebulae employ chiaroscuro, scumbling and even stipple techniques across astronomical units. This image evokes that spectacularly, with cool dust swirling among the triple star system, fringed in fire.

Visit the post at Life, Unbounded for the science behind this Image of the Week.