Spiral Galaxy

This public domain photo is from GRIN, the Great Images In NASA Collection within the NASA image archive.

This extraordinary image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures a quintessential spiral galaxy in all its glory. The NASA website points out that the center of this galaxy contains a greater concentration of older stars producing red and yellow shades, while the outer tendrils cast a bluer hue with an abundance of younger stars and star-forming gases.

This lovely image would make an unparalleled wallpaper for the space exploration enthusiast. For the rest, it would work well as a space canvas, or an integration into other works.

This image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope – NASA. NASA is an Agency of the United States government, therefore this image is in the public domain.

2.5 Megabyte JPG. Hosted by nasa.gov.

1. Mazi Bentley
   03.22.10

   This is how I imagine a tornado looks like when you watch it from above… A big spiral which look like it has a brown skeleton or nerves which form it’s shape. It is sprinkled with white dots and spots and has a spooky silver and milky glow. In the center the light is the strongest, a milky, white light, and it resembles the description of the light that patients who survived clinic death described.

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2. Walden
   03.22.10

   The background is dark in a way that only space can be, a pure blackness interrupted only by the intense light of stars and, here, the spiraling galaxy. This massive beauty occupies the center of the shot, its own center being an almost spherical gathering of off-white light. It is from this point that the spirals proceed outward; they’re textured like clouds, a mottled white, blue, and brown that give the impression of solidity that is betrayed by the interwoven stars that must be suspended between the milky lines of the tendrils. Those stars also remind a viewer of the sheer size of the feature. This might summon images of telescopes and NASA and technology, but it also brings to mind the possibility of others worlds. One wonders, with both awe and trepidation, what worlds might revolve around those stars in that galaxy and what people or creatures might make their homes there. As we stretch out machines to take distant photographs so crisp and clear, one wonders how far we are from stretching out a hand to make some kind of contact. Will we find this beautiful spiral of a galaxy empty? And what about the next one?

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3. manisha
   03.23.10

   Seeing the Spiral Galaxy I was very much touched and I wonder how this image we could capture. It is indeed very beautiful. Seeing this Galaxy I also remember my grandmother’s saying that how the world around us is large. She once said that there are thousands of such Glaxies in the universe, ours is one of such Galaxy and in that there are so many sun like stars and our sun is one of them. Around the sun we have 9 planets and our Earth is just one of them and on that Earth each one of us live in a particular country with so many states in it and in each state there are so many towns and cities and then in one such town or city we have a small house and in that house there are different families and we as a one small individual. So looking at this on whole WHERE DO WE STAND. Demanding and claming everything is under control and considering oneself most powerful and victorious. So looking at this Galaxy I have this view in mind that WHERE DO WE STAND?? We should be thankful to almighty and work together for the betterment of everyone and stop fighting among ourself on small matters.

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