Is this a real galaxy?

[johnnydeep]

This galaxy was used as the default desktop in Apple's Mountain Lion OS. It looks VERY familiar, but I haven't been able to find the name for it.

Click to view full size image

[Chris Peterson]

This galaxy was used as the default desktop in Apple's Mountain Lion OS. It looks VERY familiar, but I haven't been able to find the name for it.

Click to view full size image

It's NGC 3190, but highly stylized... not a scientific image, but one that has been artistically modified.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100503.html

[Ann]

Click to view full size image

Spiral Galaxy NGC 3190 Almost Sideways Credit: Data - Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA Processing - Robert Gendler

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Whoever made the fancy-looking version of NGC 3190 used the picture that was the APOD of May 3, 2010, and radically changed the color of the dust lane and the outer parts or halo of the galaxy (making NGC 3190 look "fatter"), cut off a strange little "tail part" of the galaxy (at upper right), removed the background galaxies and sprinkled a lot of stars all over the picture.

Ann

[johnnydeep]

This galaxy was used as the default desktop in Apple's Mountain Lion OS. It looks VERY familiar, but I haven't been able to find the name for it.

Click to view full size image

It's NGC 3190, but highly stylized... not a scientific image, but one that has been artistically modified.

https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100503.html

Thanks! I see it's been "blued up", and all the neat background galaxies are gone, and instead there is a field of stars that's not in the APOD image and perhaps are from some other pic, or entirely improvised. I didn't hate the "blued" version, but I like the real thing even better!

EDIT: Oh, and thanks to now knowing that this is NGC 3190, I even found a story about Apple's use if it! See https://www.theverge.com/2012/3/26/2903 ... -wallpaper

[Orca]

The galaxy in the original post was for OSX 10.8, Mountain Lion. 10.7, Lion, used M31:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_Lion

The meandering path of the themes for MacOS are source of "friendly ribbing" between myself and my more Apple-oriented co-workers. The "cat period" really worked through a lot of them but missed a few. OSX Caracal, OSX Serval, etc.(I feel like at least one early build should have been '"OSX Saber Tooth). But then they went to land formations, then parks, mountains, islands, etc. Oh, and the puns: Sierra (Mist), Catalina (dressing), Monetary (Jack), (Ace) Ventura...

I think Ubuntu developers have always had more alliterative fun: Disco Dingo (19.04), Groovy Gorilla (20.4), etc. Bionic Beaver and Wily Werewolf are also pretty good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_version_history

Sorry for the tangent. I just remember instantly recognizing the Lion desktop when I first saw it; that famous image of M31 was one of my favorites since I was a kid, thumbing through all available astronomy books in the local library.

[johnnydeep]

The galaxy in the original post was for OSX 10.8, Mountain Lion. 10.7, Lion, used M31:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS_X_Lion

The meandering path of the themes for MacOS are source of "friendly ribbing" between myself and my more Apple-oriented co-workers. The "cat period" really worked through a lot of them but missed a few. OSX Caracal, OSX Serval, etc.(I feel like at least one early build should have been '"OSX Saber Tooth). But then they went to land formations, then parks, mountains, islands, etc. Oh, and the puns: Sierra (Mist), Catalina (dressing), Monetary (Jack), (Ace) Ventura...

I think Ubuntu developers have always had more alliterative fun: Disco Dingo (19.04), Groovy Gorilla (20.4), etc. Bionic Beaver and Wily Werewolf are also pretty good.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_version_history

Sorry for the tangent. I just remember instantly recognizing the Lion desktop when I first saw it; that famous image of M31 was one of my favorites since I was a kid, thumbing through all available astronomy books in the local library.

I loved the M31 desktop as well. And of course, there are the sweets themed names of Android up until Android 10, where they switched to numbers alone, just like they started doing! From Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_version_history :

2.1 Android 1.0
2.2 Android 1.1
2.3 Android 1.5 Cupcake
2.4 Android 1.6 Donut
2.5 Android 2.0 Eclair
2.6 Android 2.2 Froyo
2.7 Android 2.3 Gingerbread
2.8 Android 3.0 Honeycomb
2.9 Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
2.10 Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
2.11 Android 4.4 KitKat
2.12 Android 5.0 Lollipop
2.13 Android 6.0 Marshmallow
2.14 Android 7.0 Nougat
2.15 Android 8.0 Oreo
2.16 Android 9 Pie
2.17 Android 10

[rstevenson]

I rarely use Apple’s supplied images, though I always try the new ones for a few minutes at least. I have over a thousand images saved, mostly from APODs as well as other images found here on the asterisk, from which to choose. Mostly I stick with a galaxy (currently Andromeda) or cluster pic, but sometimes I switch to views of Mars.

Rob

[Theta42]

to be frank I actually like the original
I like to see the smaller galaxies behind.

The altered one is neat but obvious edited.