Ever since early humans gazed in wonder at the majesty of the night sky, astronomy has been a particularly visual science. Modern astronomers deal in vast quantities of data, measuring the cosmos with visible light and invisible neutrinos, x-rays and cosmic rays, radio waves and gravity waves. Yet its the glorious images of astronomy — the planets, nebulae and galaxies — that capture our minds and fuels our imaginations. In this episode we discuss what makes astrophotography so important, and Emily lists her Top 4 mind-blowing cosmic images.

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Syzygy is produced by Dr Chris Stewart and co-hosted by Dr Emily Brunsden from the Department of Physics at the University of York.

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Things we talk about in this episode:

Image 1, The Pillars of Creation, from Time Magazine’s 100 Photos site: http://100photos.time.com/photos/nasa-pillars-of-creation

The Pillars of Creation — 2015 update: https://www.nasa.gov/image-feature/the-pillars-of-creation

Comparing the two images: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1501d/

Modelling the Pillars in 3D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWklVPvk0C8

Image 2, Huge Hubble panorama of Andromeda galaxy: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/

Zoom into Andromeda! https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1502a/zoomable/

A video zoom into the Andromeda image: https://youtu.be/aLlQxsGyhnw

A fly-through in 4k: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udAL48P5NJU

The zoom that broke Chris’s brain: http://hubblesite.org/image/3478/news_release/2015-02

Chris’s video on Andromeda’s awesomeness: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wicEtpPfry4

Chris Baker, Galaxy on Glass: https://galaxyonglass.com

Image 3, Chris’s Witch’s Broomstick: https://galaxyonglass.com/product/supernova-the-witchs-broom/

The Witch’s Broom, a.k.a The Veil Nebula: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_Nebula

The Cygnus Loop Nebula: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/galex/pia15415.html

Image 4, Chris’s Rosette: https://galaxyonglass.com/product/the-rosette/

The Rosette Nebula: https://oneminuteastronomer.com/2477/rosette-nebula/

Strömgren Spheres: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strömgren_sphere