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See the original image at nasa.gov

Snowflakes In The Universal Sky

nasa.gov — Like cascading snowflakes in the interstellar night, the strange shapes and textures of the stars in the Snowflake Cluster abound in the Cone Nebula. These patterns result from the tumultuous unrest that accompanies the formation of the open cluster of stars known as NGC 2264.

Who dugg this? Made popular Apr 15, 2008

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24 Comments

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  • sungoddess808, on 04/15/2008, -0/+10That is one of the most spectacular photos I've seen! Totally awesome!! =)
  • Zakul, on 04/15/2008, -0/+7And I just found a new desktop background. :D
  • souljaboytellem, on 04/15/2008, -1/+6Still amazed to see how beautiful our universe is
  • arjung, on 04/15/2008, -0/+4great pic (my new wallpaper), but doesnt look like snowflakes unless i really force it.
  • kurofuneparry, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2Great pic. The six-fold symmetry of the stars is an effect due to the carving of the lens used to take it. It has a nice effect.
  • noisician, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2i am really hoping you are not talking about "snowflakes" and the "strange shapes" of the stars because you are looking at those 6-pointed shapes made by the stars in this photograph.

    this is obviously the effect of a special camera filter (or digital processing duplicating such a filter).
    coincidentally enough this is known as a star filter.

    for example:
    http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/fi ...

    (also, fyi: the colors you see in the picture were also added later)
  • wordglue, on 04/15/2008, -0/+2So that's what I saw when I took salvia...I thought I was going inside of my mind. Wait maybe...nah.
  • bogoslav, on 04/24/2008, -0/+1Maybe one of the astronomers smoked too much?..
  • 032483, on 04/15/2008, -2/+3Beautiful
  • nimbletimble, on 04/15/2008, -2/+3Considering we, as a race, are not really built to see these views makes it even better
  • wallryan, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1yes sir, Gotta add it to my collection of space wallpapers
  • thaslaw, on 04/16/2008, -0/+1Spitzer, huh? This would be the mysterious "Nebula Number Nine"?
  • slvrbullet87, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1same here, replacing Tienanmen square, while standing up against all odds is cool, this picture beats it
  • seanof, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1The shape of the stars normal distortion cased by a reflecting telescope. There are from filters for cameras that imitate this effect.
  • abuelos84, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1Dugg for salvia. Go Pastora!
  • gdha, on 04/15/2008, -0/+1That is quite stunning.
  • diabolix, on 04/15/2008, -0/+0The appearance of the "snowflakes" is actually a side effect of the metal supports used to hold the camera up in the middle of a reflecting telescope. If you used a refracting telescope ( the kind with two lenses, and no mirrors), you would just see single points of light like you should.
  • Mansellisme, on 04/15/2008, -1/+1Nice picture, makes you look at how " big and important" the Human race really is...
  • inactive, on 04/15/2008, -5/+1That photo is really good. This one is also just as good. http://uploadingit.com/view/536077_rk6gh
  • alperea, on 04/15/2008, -7/+3It's the Flying Spaghetti Monster!
  • fr3ddie, on 04/15/2008, -7/+3the devil put the snowflakes there to make non-believers out of us!
  • vashth3stampede, on 04/15/2008, -6/+2i just hope that the nebula won't bring the shields down...
    /star trek

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