You've seen animal shapes in clouds or the
man on the moon, but what about seeing images
among the cosmos?
A stellar photo of what NASA dubs the "Hand
of God" shows the mysterious and curious depths
of space.
(Via NASA)
The image was captured by astronomers using
NASA space telescopes.
They don't know if the "Hand of God" is just
an optical illusion, but it is shedding some
light on the nature of stars.
The mass, with a diameter of about 12 miles,
is actually the remains of a star that exploded
17,000 light-years away.
It spins nearly seven times a second.
(Via USA Today)
As it spins, it emits what's called a pulsar
wind nebula, which is the remnants of a star
after it explodes — causing a blue glow
as the particles interact with magnetic fields.
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array,
or NuSTAR, captured the blue glow using high-energy
X-rays after NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory
had imaged the green and red parts.
(Via The Huffington Post)
The NuSTAR was launched in 2012 to observe
black holes and dead and exploded stars.
It's the first high-energy telescope that
has the ability to focus.
Like the NuSTAR, the Chandra also observes
black holes and dead stars but uses lower-energy
X-rays than the NuSTAR.
(Via Chandra X-Ray Observatory)
The "Hand of God" isn't the only space image
resembling a human — or godly — body part.
NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer satellite
captured an image resembling a human head
in 2012.
The head is actually an ultraviolet view of
the Cygnus Loop Nebula, located 1,500 light-years
from Earth.
(Via Space.com)
