What is your favorite image?

[robnissen]

Looking at the beautiful picture of the Helix nebula in another thread, got me to thinking of the great pictures we've seen from numerous sources. I think we could have a great thread, if people would post their most favorite picture and why it is their favorite. Mine is without question the picture of the tadpole galaxy taken by Hubble when it was testing out its new camera. It is my desktop, and every time I log on, I stop to enjoy that picture for a few seconds. Although this picture was only done to calibrate the camera, and had no particular science purpose, it contains over 3000 galaxies, which is more than from the famous Hubble Deep Field done in the mid-nineties. Every time I look at that picture with the trillions and trillions of stars it contains, I think, is it more amazing that there are beings out there looking back at me, or if there is nothing looking back, and we are completely alone in the universe. Beyond the 3000 galaxies, the tadpole galaxy itself is just amazing. In the low quality picture I had to download here because of pixel size, I don't know if you can see the wispish cloud pointing straight done from the galaxy (not the tail). Yet that wispish cloud probably contains millions if not billions of suns. This picture never ceases to awe and amaze me.

 

[lunatio_gordin]

wow, this is a tough choice. I'm particularly into 3D modeling so a lot of the pictures i have downloaded are artworks by lots of people (including myself.) <br />Of real pictures on my comp, i like this the best: <br />Gar, just a little too big, had to resize it... :

 

[alokmohan]

In fact these are of asthetic use only.Not much purpose served.