Ambient · deep space
Galaxy Clock
Coloured nebula clouds turning slowly behind a field of stars. Darker and richer than the plain starfield.
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Press F for full screen. Motion pauses automatically if your system asks for reduced motion.
The scene
Nebulae and Star Fields
What a Nebula Actually Is
A cloud of gas and dust in interstellar space, sometimes the leftovers of a dead star, sometimes the nursery of a new one. The colours in real images come from different elements glowing at different wavelengths: hydrogen red, oxygen blue-green.
Why the Colours Here Are Exaggerated
Most published nebula photographs are false colour, mapped from wavelengths the eye cannot see. What you see here is in the same spirit: suggestive rather than accurate.
Slow Rotation
The clouds turn over roughly two minutes. Real nebulae do not visibly move at all, of course; the rotation is here to keep the scene alive.
Where It Works
A dark room, a projector, or behind a stream. It is the most colourful dark scene on the site.
Under the hood
How This Scene Is Built
The nebulae are heavily blurred coloured circles rotating very slowly, and the stars are single pixels with their own twinkle timing. Nothing is a photograph, so the page loads instantly and works offline.
The pause button stops the rotation and the twinkling while leaving the colours in place, and the scene respects your system reduce-motion setting automatically.
Answers
Galaxy Background Questions
Is this a real photograph?
No. Everything is drawn with CSS gradients and blur. There is no image file to download, which is why it loads instantly.
How many stars are there?
Around a hundred and sixty in the full-screen version, each with its own size and twinkle timing.