Hubble views cosmic dust lanes

Featured in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a nearly edge-on view of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4753. Lenticular galaxies have an elliptical shape and ill-defined spiral arms.

Some clever ways to search for primordial black holes

Primordial black holes (PBHs) have recently received much attention in the physics community. One of the primary reasons is the potential link to dark matter. In effect, if PBHs can be proven to exist, there's a very good ...

Does the Milky Way have too many satellite galaxies?

The Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are well-known satellite galaxies of the Milky Way, but there are more. It is surrounded by at least 61 within 1.4 million light years (for context the Andromeda galaxy is 2.5 million ...

A nebula that extends its hand into space

The Gum Nebula is an emission nebula almost 1400 light-years away. It's home to an object known as "God's Hand" among the faithful. The rest of us call it CG 4.

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Darkness

Darkness, in contrast with brightness, is a relative absence of visible light. It is the appearance of black in a color space. When light is not present, rod and cone cells within the eye are not stimulated. This lack of stimulation means photoreceptor cells are unable to distinguish color frequency and wavelength. The resulting perception is achromatic and in the case of darkness, black. The emotional reaction to darkness has metaphorical importance in many cultures.

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