The European Space Agency’s Planck mission released its first all-sky map the other day.
They say it’s a high resolution false-color image of the microwave sky, highlighting cool gas and sust dust within the galactic disk. Am I the only person who finds it startlingly similar to the map of the galactic Zones of Thought in Vernor Vinge’s A Fire Upon the Deep?
I am? Really? Because it was my first thought when I saw this.
Wow. That looks really cool, but I can’t compare it the galactic zones of thought…
Yeah. Somehow I missed A Fire Upon the Deep. C’est horrible — I know. Maybe because I was only when it was 7 when it came out? No worries, though; the problem has been rectified, and my copy is now on its way.
Thanks for sharing the cool image and the sci fi title.
I only read A Fire Upon the Deep a couple of years ago, myself. But I can see why it won the Hugo. It clicked for me, because I love idea stories.
(Oddly, it’s the only Vernor Vinge work that hasn’t left me cold, and in this case I thought it was marvelous. I haven’t read the sequel, which I’m told is equally good.)
The Planck all-sky map was also on Astronomy Picture of the Day today.