Mario Galaxy's impossible mystery

Mario Galaxy has a big mystery on its title screen: the galaxy within the game's logo - where did that image come from? It took 14 years, but now the answer has finally been revealed!

MUSIC
All music via Epidemic Sound

[cracklasco]

Not ONCE have I ever noticed the galaxy in the damn Galaxy logo.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

One thing's not a mystery
the soundtrack of that game is a masterpiece. You can't help but vibe to the Comet Observatory. A beautiful piece of our childhoods

[suomalaista]

This just reminds me of the whole Minecraft pack.png search

[Rajada]

Fun Fact: Dorfdork is the leader of the Render96 project, which consists of making Super Mario 64 as faithful as possible to the promotional art. He is also responsible for finding the origin of several textures used in Super Mario 64.

[shuumatsunojoshua]

Finally, we can now call this Galaxy the Mario Galaxy.

[SuperWiiBros]

That's amazing
But you never questioned the little planets in it, I guess they haven't been found yet

[blakethesimms]

This is the coolest thing I didn't care about

[CosmicNyan]

"Super Mario Galaxy came out in 2007"

Me: *suddenly ages 20 years*

[omori]

7:01 "Vegetables" *Proceeds to show Apples, Oranges, and Cherries.*

[SupremeLeaderKimJong-un]

Answering the questions we didn't even know we needed the answers to
humanity is lucky I invented space, composed the SMG soundtracks, and made the Moon out of cheese

[naryosh_]

Imagine a photograph you took as an astronomer ending up in a _video game_ of all things 48 years later. What a legacy. And 14 years after your photo reappears, people finally realize when you took it.

[mihf]

literally all these videos make me say: "dang that's interesting as heck"

[thanos]

As an astrophotographer I feel like the stock photo and Caltech’s are different. I say this bc there is noticeably more spherical aberration in the stock pic (you can see this when they change between photos and the stars bulge slightly between each shot). This would mean it’s being shot with a different optical train. There’s also a bit more dynamic range in Caltech’s (there is less clipping in the cores). Also Caltech’s has more fine scale structures when compared to the stock pic and is overall smoother and less noisy. However I really enjoyed the vid and it’s really cool to see the actual stock photos used!

[SueZQue]

I love how you’ve been Answering questions nobody asked for since 2018

[jetstreamjackie]

aww, what a heartwarming story. glad CaptainByte was able to solve the mystery!!

[ryanthecelebi]

Captain byte I've gotta really hand to him that right there is dedication to figure out what image they used in mario galaxy title logo is incredible good for him👍

[alphabettical]

If it goes as far back as 1959 in terms of the stars moving around, it would probably be that one in terms of less people being able to take pictures of galaxies then, less photography sources being important enough/easily accessible enough to end up on those CDs, and then the connection to those CDs, Japan and Nintendo's use of other images from there makes it certain.

[bassrecord]

lmao when you read the letters with the shining stars u get
"ur mr gay"

[davidthecha]

7:01 apples are my favorite vegetables.

[abovethemist]

" To solve this mystery, I Booked A Flight To Japan."