How did our Universe come into being? When and how did its various components emerge? What is the largest known structure? What is a galaxy? How many stars are there in our Milky Way? Do exoplanets orbit any of them? When was our Solar System formed? What are its main constituents? What is panspermia? How did the Earth evolve into an environment suitable for the emergence and diversification of life? The answers in pictures, below.
« Star cluster »This photograph was taken on a spring day in Revel (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie). It shows the details of a dandelion flower. Then follows an analogy with a star cluster from which magnetic field lines come out. Read more ...
« Symmetry breaking »This low-light photograph of a chandelier was taken in a store in Caraman (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie). It shows various geometric shapes in the dark - like the elementary particles created and disseminated in space shortly after the Big Bang. Read more ...
« Journey into the Universe »This exhibition, comprising some fifty shots taken from the ground and from space, was installed on the allées Charles de Gaulle in Revel (Occitanie, France) from June to October 2024. It has invited local residents and tourists alike to discover our Universe, the objects that fill it (planets, moons, stars, black holes, quasars, galaxies, etc.), and the tools of space exploration (rockets, orbital stations, interplanetary probes, rovers). Read more ...
« Panspermia »This photograph was taken on a summer evening from the village of Magrin in the Lauragais region (Tarn, Occitanie). It was August 1st, a crossroad day for holidaymakers, as evidenced by the numerous airplane tracks in the sky. This is how humanity is dispersed nowadays ... Read more ...
« A light box »This photograph was taken on an autumn evening from Rennes-le-Château in the Upper Valley of the Aude (Occitanie). It shows two airplane trails in a sunset, embracing the curvature of the Earth. Read more ...
« Cosmogony »This photograph was taken on a winter day from the hills of the Lauragais region (Aude, Occitanie). It depicts a refined landscape, made up of two essential elements: air and earth, i.e., two of the substances at the origin of our universe of matter. Read more ...
« About vacuum and creation »This photograph was taken on a winter evening, shortly after the Sun set behind the Lauragais hills (Tarn, Occitanie). The sky is pale, and the few scattered clouds have a pinkish hue. Read more ...
« Tribal art »This photograph was taken in the Grotte de Limousis (Aude, Occitanie). It shows stone sculpted by water. Artificial lighting gives this crevice a distinctive shape, recalling that of certain tribal masks. Read more ...
« The Moon and the Lake »This photograph was taken on a summer evening on the shores of Lac du Messal (Tarn, Occitanie). As it rises, the orange disk of the full Moon is reflected. Her face appears elongated and wrinkled. Is this reflection real, asks the Moon? A dialogue ensues with the Lake ... Read more ...
« Autumn mist »This autumn photograph depicts the fog enclosing the Lauragais region - this vast plain stretching from Toulouse to Revel, from Castelnaudary to Castres (Occitanie). Under the effect of the breeze, the mist moves through space, creating a new landscape with each passing moment. Read more ...
« The Veilhes Nebula »This photograph was taken on a summer evening, in the sky over Veilhès (Tarn, Occitanie). Nebulosities and nebulae rub shoulders with the wind, to the point of merging. In reality, the Veilhès nebula is the result of a combination of cosmic and atmospheric phenomena. Read more ...
« Itinerary of an advised noctambule »This photograph depicts the artificial lights that bathe an alleyway in the center of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie): the glow of streetlamps is added to that of car headlights. The result is an invitation to stroll through the City Universe, studded with thousands of shimmering dots. Read more ...
« Lone in the world ? »This photograph of our Sun was taken at high noon from the center of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie), using a superposition of infrared and neutral density filters. Is the appearance of this reflection on the line of sight an illusion or a reality? Read more ...
« Imagine ... »This photograph was taken one spring evening from the village of Algans (Tarn, Occitanie), as the stars of the constellation of Orion and the star Sirius made their appearance in the twilight sky. An opportunity to explore ancient and modern representations of the starry sky. Read more ...
« The echo of light »This photograph of our Sun was taken at high noon from the center of Toulouse (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie), using a superposition of infrared and neutral density filters. This ephemeral conjunction of reflections and distortions follows. Read more ...
« Body of a goddess »This photograph was taken on a summer's evening, from a small road along the Pic de Bugarach (Aude, Occitanie). Here, devoid of any light pollution, the Milky Way appears to be made up of vast clouds of gas and dust, studded with thousands of bright stars. Read more ...
« Atmosphere, Atmosphere ... ... »This photograph was taken on a summer's evening from Minerve (Hérault, Occitanie). The haze rises, gradually obscuring the light coming from the stars, reflecting on the ground the radiance of the Moon. The haze, or the visible manifestation of the intangible, of the invisible ... of the atmosphere. Read more ...
« Eruption of stars »This photograph was taken on a summer's evening from a small road along the Pic de Bugarach (Aude, Occitanie). Shortly after midnight, the Milky Way hoverhung the legendary rocky peak, suggesting an eruption of stars accompanied by glowing dust. Read more ...
« Ocher Digger »This photograph was taken inside the Cabrespine Giant Chasm (Aude, Occitanie). The Upper Languedoc is full of underground cavities dug by water infiltration in limestone cracks of the karstic massif dating from the Devonian, that is to say, from 400 million years ago. Read more ...
« Rock shelter »This photograph was taken inside the Cabrespine Giant Chasm (Aude, Occitanie). Artificial lighting reveals two sets of concretions, similar to people whose sizes and postures differ according to their respective attributions. Read more ...
« Fallen from the Sky »This image results from the superposition of two photographs, one taken at Rennes-le-Château (Aude, Occitanie), the other at Saint-Sauveur (Haute-Garonne, Occitanie). It reveals the features of an « aerolite » that crashed on July 10, 1914, on a parcel of land in this village located a few kilometers north of Toulouse. Read more ...
« Martian twilight »This photograph was taken not far from Serres, in the Red Lands of the Upper Valley of the Aude (Occitanie). These 135-million-year-old clays form a succession of small canyons covered with sparse vegetation. Has such a landscape ever existed on the surface of Mars? Read more ...
« The flyschs of Socoa »This photograph was taken not far from Socoa, on the Basque coast (Aquitaine). It shows the erosion of cliffs under the onslaught of the Atlantic waves. A slow process that began at the end of the Cretaceous period. At that time, the flyschs reached heights of some 400 meters. Read more ...
« Magma Ocean »This photograph was taken not far from Port de l'Hers, in the Parc naturel régional des Pyrénées ariégeoises (Occitania). As the Sun disappeared below the western horizon, the atmosphere took on a reddish-orange hue, giving it the appearance of an ocean of magma. Read more ...
« Comet in Twilight »This photograph was taken on an autumn evening, from the road connecting Mas d'Azil to the small village of Carla-Bayle, at the foot of the Ariège Pyrenees (Occitanie). The clouds on the horizon sculpt the light coming from the setting sun, giving it the appearance of a comet. Read more ...
« The Dawn of the Moon »This photograph was taken in the Cabardès region, not far from the famous castles of Lastours (Aude, Occitanie). As it rises, the surface of the full Moon appears cratered. An opportunity to explore the main scenario behind the formation of our natural satellite. Read more ...
« The Pillars of Creation »This photograph was taken in the Chasm of Caprespine (Aude, Occitania). The shape of the cavity, the arrangement of the stalagmites and the artificial lighting evoke the Pillars of Creation, these vast clouds of gas and dust that make up the Eagle Nebula. Read more ...
