It took me several seconds to process that that is a cyclone on a planet and not some whirlpool shaped 'black hole', but once that clicked, the whole image suddenly became even better, and went from mere WOW to AWESOME.



The dual star system and the accretion of gas from the bigger one to the denser (more massive, if smaller in size) one is excellently done. The flares, the shades of intensity on the larger star... it seems like it's a red giant. The smaller one is so much more intense. I can easily imagine the x-rays it's shooting out. The inhabitants of the planet must be treated to a slowly changing but ever moving show with the accretion spiral of gas. I imagine it changes over days, with occasional sudden flares as larger blobs get absorbed.



The background starscape is subdued and realistic. The stars are random (really, some clumped, some far apart; not everybody understands and does 'random' properly). The nebula is just enough, and does not (like some other cases that I have seen) look like a local fog, or lit by the star system alone.



The planet is excellently portrayed. The storm is superb.



The rock flying apart (moon? asteroid? space rock within the Roche limit?) is wonderfully done. The hint of motion blur in some pieces, the deliberately out-of-focus fragment in the front, the shading and the highlights on the nearer pieces, all that go to make it a tense and dynamic snapshot.



I disagree with ErikShoemaker's critique to this extent: the monochrome makes the tiny spacecraft stand out, which would otherwise have been missed as a detail. I really fear for the occupants, what with chunks of space debris raining down on them. They probably went up there thinking radiation shielding was their worst problem.



In fact, I express my strong gratitude to TobiasRoetsch for putting a very heavy filter on this image so that we are not blinded by the sheer amount of visible light and other radiation that would have come our way had he not been so thoughtful.



AWESOME awesome.