Stunning photographs of the cosmos, like the wondrous images captured by the Hubble Space telescope, convey the beauty that arises from the simple interactions of dust and light and gas on absolutely massive scales. Missing from photos of the universe, however, is a sense of depth: These stunning nebula are not a paint splatter on a celestial canvas, but truly massive constructions hanging in the void.
Working from his own photographs of far-off nebulae, astrophotographer J-P Metsävainio came up with a way to artificially add in the third dimension. From there, he’s produced gorgeous animations of voluminous nebulae. (The files are quite big, so you might have to give it a second.)
