The Sharpest View Ever of the Triangulum Galaxy , 40 Billion Stars and Counting

The Triangulum Galaxy is the third largest in our local Galaxy cluster and contains around 40 billion stars , to show the Galaxy off to its full extent the Hubble Space Telescope team have created the second largest image they've ever created comprising of about 54 different pointings with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.

To show off the full majesty of Triangulum Galaxy the helpful Hubble chaps have given us the option to explore the image through a Zoomable version so we can get deep down into the Galaxy or you can download the full image Here which weighs in at a whopping 1.6 GB .... other slightly smaller versions are available but zoomable is the best way to go in my opinion.

This gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy — also known as Messier 33 — is a composite of about 54 different pointings with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. With a staggering size of 34 372 times 19 345 pixels, it is the second-largest image ever released by Hubble. It is only dwarfed by the image of the Andromeda Galaxy, released in 2015.

The mosaic of the Triangulum Galaxy showcases the central region of the galaxy and its inner spiral arms. Millions of stars, hundreds of star clusters and bright nebulae are visible.

Doesn't matter how many of these pictures I see it's still mind blowing , the zoomable version brings home that each of those tiny splodges is likely a Solar System capable of being home to others.

Just one Galaxy of Billions.

It's mind blowing that we're exploring our solar system with our telescopes, probes and rovers. However, it's equally impressive when you lay on a blanket on a cool summer night, far removed from city lights, catching a buzz while gazing at the stars. It still, to this day, blows me away! S & F

a reply to: shawmanfromny

Amen to that brother.

a reply to: gortex

There's got to be a few goldilocks zones in there somewhere.

a reply to: gortex

The zoomable version is great, thanks for posting this.

Being capable of being home to others does not mean that's necessarily the case. That's 100% speculation or personal belief.

For all we really know, there's nothing out there but gas and rocks. But, as Carl Sagan famously said (quoting someone else and parphrasing), it would be a terrible waste of space if the cosmos were indeed barren.

I agree, but my personal belief is that habitable planets "out there" will stay barren until.... we receive them. Those planets are for us.

I think the Mormons are more correct about this than even they know.

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: gortex

There's got to be a few goldilocks zones in there somewhere.

Yet no Goldilocks or 3 bears.

a reply to: NthOther

I sometimes think our planet is a one off and it is the only one with lifeforms because of all the random events that had to occur to make it so.

Yeah, we're pretty insignificant. Statistically, we don't even exist.

But that still doesn't stop people from arguing politics.

originally posted by: InTheLight
a reply to: NthOther
I sometimes think our planet is a one off and it is the only one with lifeforms because of all the random events that had to occur to make it so.

It's quite possible. The more we learn about space, the more hostile and sterile it appears.

a reply to: NthOther

Being capable of being home to others does not mean that's necessarily the case. That's 100% speculation or personal belief.

Indeed it is , but the more we learn the more likely it becomes.

For all we really know, there's nothing out there but gas and rocks.

And Stars like our own orbited by objects such as our Sun is , one day soon we may even get an image of one of those object.
I believe we will find life in our own Solar System and when we do the implications for life out there will be great.
Look to the Moons.

originally posted by: Gothmog

originally posted by: Wide-Eyes
a reply to: gortex

There's got to be a few goldilocks zones in there somewhere.

Yet no Goldilocks or 3 bears.

You don't know that. There might be 5 bears.

a reply to: gortex

wow thanks for the added dose of anxiety...cannot process how many stars there are and with that said how many planets are near each star?

a reply to: gortex

One thing that blows my mind is it would take us years (with current technology) to fly just from one star to the next.

Awe inspiring and depressing at the same time.

To think, people actually believe we are alone.

Amazing.

originally posted by: Fisherr
To think, people actually believe we are alone. Amazing.

Until proven otherwise.

a reply to: gortex



I can't imagine there not being life elsewhere with billions of galaxies.

a reply to: gortex

Cool thread Gortex, I always have to laugh at myself when I read triangulum M33 because it takes me back to watching a now ancient episode of star trek the next generation and with my faulty memory I actually recall them calling it M34.

Brilliant view of all of those stars and God only know's how many may have life - if not now then barring us destroying ourselves maybe even human's whom may yet find a way to sneak around the theory of relativity in the distant future so somewhere among'st that star field may be a world that one day your own descendant's may even call home, maybe they will look back at the earth from that far away place and wonder at there ancestors whom if they get there somehow bypassing the relativity barrier (why not we've broken all the others and someone always say's it can not be done) may actually still be looking at light that left our sun before we ourselves were born, it's a hugely distant galaxy but we now know that it is not even near to the other side of the universe and if not infinite it is at least hundreds or even millions of time's larger than they once thought.

Another thought is that we could be looking at an image and on one of those ancient world's that once or still does orbit one of those stars an alien being may be looking at our galaxy and thinking exactly the same thought's as we are.

Islands in an infinite sea separated by time and the vast ocean of space but united in wondering if we are alone when we most definitely are not.

originally posted by: Night Star
I can't imagine there not being life elsewhere with billions of galaxies.

I'm pretty sure I exist. Cognito ergo sum, and all that. But what are the odds of someone exactly like me existing somewhere else in the vastness of space and time? There are unique things in the universe, and life on this planet might just be one of those things.

a reply to: Blue Shift

There is no one exactly like you on Earth so why wouldn't there be unique beings in other galaxies?