Image of the Month: Island in Space: Mandala

Island In Space

This object is a beautiful spiral galaxy known as the Triangulum Galaxy as it appears in the direction of the constellation Triangulum. It is also catalogued as M33 and sometimes referred to as The Pinwheel, for obvious reasons!

This galaxy is part of our local group of galaxies which contains at least 40 ‘islands in space’. M33 is smaller than our own galaxy, the Milky Way with a mass of about one tenth.

M33 is about 3 million light years from Earth and probably influenced by the huge gravitational pull of its biggest neighbour, the Andromeda galaxy. As with all the galaxies in this group they are moving and will one day collide with each other forming new larger galaxies.

During certain times of the year M33 can be seen even from the UK with the naked eye as a fuzzy blob, but it is tough to spot.

Contained within this image you will see red areas. These are star forming regions or huge nebulae. On the upper right hand edge of the galaxy there is one such ‘blob’ which is such a large nebula that it has its own catalogue number NGC 604, despite being in another galaxy.

This is how you are seeing this object, as it was 3 million years ago, Earth time. It is interesting to think about what the Earth was like when these photons left M33 on their way to my camera to create this image you now have on your wall.

Island In Space: M33 Triangulum Galaxy

Island In Space: Mandala

What is a Mandala?

A mandala is a 'circle' but is commonly used to describe intricate circular patterns. In some religions they are used to represent the whole universe and to guide a spiritual journey.

Working with Rachel Bath I have created these intricate and beautiful mandalas. Each of these beautiful geometric patterns is created from my own deep sky images and this one is made from my image: Island In Space.

Intricate patterns of stars and nebulosity