Starship Asterisk*

Saw it before but always in awe every time I see it. If only we could travel in space...what wonders!!

No never - am a total newbie and am completely mind-blown by all the images on the site

Yes I saw it before, and very glad to see it now. Reminds me of a giant thunderhead on earth.

Yes many times.

U. Arizona student have it on their T-shirts.

I've seen this so many times! A friend gave my husband and me a night-light with a transparency of the image. He rarely cared for such things, but that one he did like.
When it was first published someone wrote that, if turned, it was "the face of God." I've tried, but I can't see it as a humanlike face at any angle. (Maybe I'm a little slow at pareidolia.) Can someone help?

I've seen this classic image many times and still find it inspiring. I would encourage APOD to show similarly great images regularly. Not only are they a reminder of why we visit APOD, but individual images are easy to forget over the years, so I welcome the opportunity to see them again. And newcomers to APOD might never have seen them; don't these people deserve to see the best images our collective investment in astronomy has produced as well?

Seen it many times, not just on APOD - a metal band called Mithras used it as their album cover a few years ago too. It's such a stunning image, though, even more so when you zoom out and realise it's just a tiny bit of a whole nebula and yet it's still so huge that whole stars are growing in there... it's an astronomical icon and a gateway image which helped draw the likes of me to APOD.

I don't always remember what I've seen before, but this is so astoundingly magnificent. I'm delighted to see it again!

This is an incredible photo once seen never forgotton, but I am puzzled why does the second photo from spitzer suggest it may been destroyed by a supernova, and as the pillars are so huge surely the nova would'nt span them all?

I well recall this image. I have seen it at least three times. Also featured on PBS Nova. By the way the one on the left really is a celestial monster. His/her/its face is clearly seen on its right about 1/5 of the way down. (It is preparing to devour the smaller monster on its right. ) Sorry i don't know how to insert my detail screen shot, even though there is a tab for it above.

.....I first saw this image 7 or 8 years ago. I was most struck by the contention that while the image projects a semblance of solidity, the actual density of the materials within were stated to be on the order of 1 Tablespoon per Cubic mile! It was the astounding distances that made it seem more dense than it really is.

Definitely a Golden Oldie. Never tire of it.

Reminds me of the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey in triplicate.

Side thought: with all of the dust in space, who has the broom?

It is not all about the images. The little annotations that come along with them often allow me to see more into the scenes than I could grasp before, and this ability to understand what the image allows you to see is very precious for me. So I suggest to think about repetitions with explanations also in mind. This post is a great example, as it gives the additional, newer knowledge about the surrounding structure, and explaining why the pillars indeed do have a topside (a question posted earlier in this string).

It's a classic, but I find it hard to look at. The missing corner drives me crazy. What was more important at the time that they couldn't take the additional exposures to square the image?

I have seen various versions of this image though I am unsure if I have seen this version. Always worth another look and I am quite happy to be provided pics from the archive once a week. APOD makes my day.

Last seen here on 28. March 2010

Yes, I have seen this marvelous image before. I will gawk at it in awe each time you (or anyone else for that matter) display it.

Unlike many other replies, my response to this image is: Wow~ there certainly IS a God and He has created some fantastically beautiful sights for us to gaze upon in this Universe!!!

I've seen this one... it's one of the best examples of what the Hubble can take pictures of.

Yes, I have seen it b4.
But never tire of looking at gorgeous things.

i had downloaded all apod-images.
And i have seen the featured APOD image as pillarsofcreation_hst, pillars5_hst, pillars4_hst and as pillars3_hst.

Haha it is one of my favorite Cosmos Pictures , and yes many many times, It is even on the front cover of a Bible study book about creation put out by the JW Society. It has such marleouse colrings to it and is worthy of print often. Thanks for having it shwon again! I really enjoy it anytime I see it

Wasn't this one of several on US Postage stamps commemorating E. Hubble?
Still a gorgeous image. Seems to me the write-ups are getting better:
this one includes awareness of time and distance, what we see now
may well not be there "now."

The people who answered "All of the above" may
be trying to tell you something. I wonder what?

Why are they always pointing upward?

I have the early picture on a disc of desk top photos for the pc.
I used it for years.
Pete Heimbach