For the first time galaxies other than our close neighbours could be imaged in such detail that we could see their shapes, sizes, even watch their stars blink and explode, and measure their distances.
The resulting image, known as the "Hubble Deep Field", revealed about 3,000 galaxies from the dawn of time – galaxies that had existed long before the Earth was born and whose light had been travelling to us for most of the 13.82 billion years the universe has been in existence.
Astronomers know that, over time, galaxies tend to clump together in clusters and, eventually, superclusters.
At that time, galaxies were small, but over the eons they grew larger by merging with other galaxies.
At least, nobody would have begrudged the long-time Galaxy defender for being less public than he was.
It would have been all I needed to complete my collection, which at the time included galaxy leggings and galaxy nail art galaxy-print wart galaxy-print013.
Like a heavenly body twinkling down from another time and galaxy, the Venice film festival still beams out the glamour of the old world.
