You’re probably not going anywhere any time soon, for reasons which should be obvious to you by now.
But thanks to NASA and the Hubble Space Telescope, you can go back in time and visit the outer reaches of visible space. A welcome escape from the tyranny of ‘inside’, if you ask me.
To celebrate 30 years of the grand telescope orbiting around our pale blue dot, NASA has cooked up a nifty web tool to help you see imagery captured by the Hubble Space Telescope on your birthday.
Simply enter your date of birth into the site, and NASA will sling you a high-definition shot of some wonder within our galaxy – or far, far out of it.
For example, punching April 20 into the site reveals this image of our galaxy’s centre, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2008.
NASA states the infrared image reveals “complex structures in the hot ionized gas”. Funny, that.
If you’re a Christmas baby, you’ll find the result for December 25 is a dazzler.
The telescope’s 2009 rendering of the galaxy NGC 4214 shows “Intricate patterns of glowing hydrogen formed during the star-birthing process, cavities blown clear of gas by stellar winds, and bright stellar clusters” some 10 million light-years away from Earth.
All told, it’s a really beaut tribute to one of mankind’s most special achievements. If you’re keen to have a peep at some of the more beautiful and moving imagery ever recorded, feel free to do so here.
