I've got data....and more coming!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I'm an astronomer. I don't get to do research all the time, of course. In fact, most of my time at work is spent supporting OTHER scientists research, because I support a NASA space telescope, and I actually schedule other people's observations on the telescope.

But recently, I was privileged to use this telescope in for my own studies of a particular molecular cloud. It's a stellar "nursery", where stars are currently forming, so many of the objects in that cloud aren't really stars yet, but they will be someday. The youngest of these are protostars, which are very cold (temperatures not far above absolute zero) so the only way to see them is in the far-infrared or at even longer wavelengths (radio frequencies, for example).

Here is the cloud at the mid-infrared wavelength of 24 microns:


And at the far-infrared wavelength of 70 microns:


Lovely, isn't it? Well, it is to me, anyway! :)

The filmy, fuzzy stuff is the cloud, and most of the bright spots are the very young stars or protostars in the process of condensing from the cloud material. Many are still too cold to be seen in the wavelengths of light detectable by the human eye. Those that show up at 70 microns only are very young indeed....maybe only tens of thousands of years old (that's young for a star).

I am waiting impatiently for more of my data to be processed....just this past Monday the cloud was mapped again at four other wavelengths (3.6, 4.5, 5.8, 8.0 microns) by the space telescope, and I'm SO excited. I can't wait to see what I've got!

It is such an honor and a privilege to be allowed to study His handiwork.

I am always awed by the vastness and complexity of His universe, and how incredibly small and insignificant our planet is among the billions upon billions of stars out there....by how He manages to give us His attention, how He listens to us as individuals, even as we crawl ant-like on the surface of this pebble in the sky. The Lord is infinitely beyond our comprehension, yet loves us so tenderly that He sent His Son to live among us and die for us.

My mind is boggled, but my spirit rejoices.