spiral nebula

Famed astronomer Edwin Hubble used this very telescope to solve the long-debated spiral nebulae question by observing other galaxies to be separate from our own.

And I’m thinking of the images of vaudevillian skeletons, and a weeping soldier, and spiral nebulae that have preoccupied the artist of late.

The entire underside of the dome looked like space as seen from the Hubble telescope: A dusty spiral nebula billowed up, a galaxy of stars twinkled, and meteorites whizzed across the ceiling.

Later that year, Payne won the inaugural Annie Jump Cannon Prize for contributions to astronomy, receiving $50 and a gold pin, designed by Cannon, in the form of a spiral nebula.

Some scientists toyed with the idea that the spiral nebulae were not distant island universes but rather nearby condensing clouds of interstellar gas, perhaps on their way to make solar systems.