There are times -- rare, but they happen -- when I have a difficult time describing the enormity of something. Something so big, so overwhelming, that words simply cannot suffice. The basic story is: Using the VISTA telescope in Chile and the UKIRT telescope in Hawaii, astronomers have made an incredibly detailed map of the sky in infrared. This map will help understand our own galaxy, more distant galaxies, quasars, nebulae, and much more. But what do I mean by "incredibly detailed"? This is where words get hard. So hang on tight; let me show you instead. Here's a section of the survey they made, showing the star-forming region G305, an enormous cloud of gas about 12,000 light years away which is busily birthing tens of thousands of stars:
[Click to enstellarnate.] Pretty, isn't it? There are about 10,000 stars in this image, and you can see the gas and ...
