Spiral Galaxy M81 HD (zoomable)

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0710a/zoomable/


The sharpest image ever taken of the large “grand design” spiral galaxy M81 is being released today at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.
A spiral-shaped system of stars, dust, and gas clouds, the galaxy’s arms wind all the way down into the nucleus. Though the galaxy is located 11.6 million light-years away, the Hubble Space Telescope’s view is so sharp that it can resolve individual stars, along with open star clusters, globular star clusters, and even glowing regions of fluorescent gas. The Hubble data was taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2004 through 2006. This colour composite was assembled from images taken in blue, visible, and infrared light.

 

what a great site and sight that is. TOTALLY AMAZING.

I dont understand what this means "This colour composite was assembled from images taken in blue, visible, and infrared light".
does it mean that these images are a reconstruction. Not sure how these huge telescopes work at all actually. Why didnt they just take a photo like normal rather than assemble them from blue and infra red?

 

Simply amazing. Had to default that for my wallpaper.

 

It's ok. I couldn't find my home planet though.

 

I LOL'd

 

Zooming in around the edges brings in a lot of new detail.

 

This is wonderful. Thank yu for posting this. I love space and want to be able to explore the universe, and see galaxies one day..but this is as close as ill get I think in my life time. So thanks.

 

Wow. The level of detail really is astounding. That is a LOT of stars.