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Further Proof We Live in the Slow Zone

Posted on July 7, 2010 by eidolon

The European Space Agency’s Planck mission released its first all-sky map the other day. 

The first Planck all-sky map

 

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.

 

2 thoughts on “Further Proof We Live in the Slow Zone”

  1. Susan says:
    July 9, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    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.

    Reply
  2. Ian says:
    July 9, 2010 at 3:13 pm

    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.

    Reply

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