Our universe is an incredible, unfathomably enormous and beautiful thing. It is hard to not to feel insignificant against the size and beauty of the universe!
NASA describes our universe as follows:
The universe is everything. It includes all of space, and all the matter and energy that space contains. It even includes time itself and, of course, it includes you.
Earth and the Moon are part of the universe, as are the other planets and their many dozens of moons. Along with asteroids and comets, the planets orbit the Sun. The Sun is one among hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way galaxy, and most of those stars have their own planets, known as exoplanets.
The Milky Way is but one of billions of galaxies in the observable universe — all of them, including our own, are thought to have supermassive black holes at their centers. All the stars in all the galaxies and all the other stuff that astronomers can’t even observe are all part of the universe. It is, simply, everything.
The awesomeness of the universe is just that: awesome beyond understanding, staggering in its scale and mysteries, and cosmic displays that stretch our comprehension!
Following are actual images captured by NASA and astronomers around the world and posted on NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day Archive.
Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles
Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335
NGC 6164: A Dragon’s Egg
The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Virgo Cluster Galaxies
Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb
38 Hours with the M81 Group
HH 49: Interstellar Jet from Webb
NGC 4414: A Flocculent Spiral Galaxy
Hickson 44 in Leo
Image Credits:
- Gum 37 and the Southern Tadpoles: Francis Bozon & Cecil Navick (AstroA. R. O.)
- Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 5335: NASA, ESA, STScI
- NGC 6164: A Dragon’s Egg: Daniel Stern
- The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared: Infrared: NASA, Spitzer Space Telescope Visible: Oliver Czernetz, Siding Spring Obs.
- Virgo Cluster Galaxies: Daniel Adibi
- Planetary Nebula NGC 1514 from Webb: NASA, ESA, CSA, M. E. Ressler (JPL) et al.; Processing: Judy Schmidt
- 38 Hours with the M81 Group: Daniel Yang K.
- HH 49: Interstellar Jet from Webb: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, JWST
- NGC 4414: A Flocculent Spiral Galaxy: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur, S. W. Jha, A. Filippenko
- Hickson 44 in Leo: Jiang Wu
- Featured Image: NASA