'Hand of God' spotted by NASA space telescope

By Hum
in Science News & Discussion

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Grand Master

Hum

Posted
Posted

Religion and astronomy may not overlap often, but a new NASA X-ray image captures a celestial object that resembles the "Hand of God."

 

nustar-hand-of-god-2.jpg

The cosmic "hand of God" photo was produced when a star exploded and ejected an enormous cloud of material, which NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, glimpsed in high-energy X-rays, shown in blue in the photo. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory had imaged the green and red parts previously, using lower-energy X-rays.

"NuSTAR's unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light," NuSTAR telescope principal investigator Fiona Harrison, of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, said in a statement.

The new image depicts a pulsar wind nebula, produced by the dense remnant of a star that exploded in a supernova. What's left behind is a pulsar, called PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short), which spins around 7 times per second blowing a wind of particles into material ejected during the star's death throes.

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Grand Master

giantpotato

Posted
Posted

Why do people buy into this stupidity? it's a nebula, nothing more.

Whoah, whoah, calm down now. Next thing you'll be telling me is the Big Dipper isn't an actual ladle in the sky.

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

Really? If you outline the dust cloud, assuming each ejecta trail is a "finger," you get this

IMG_20140111_100628.jpg

 

Personally I see it the other way, as a left hand held out, with the "finger" sticking out to the right being the thumb. 

Grand Master

+jamesyfx Subscriber²

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  • Subscriber²
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As mentioned above.. I don't think anyone is saying it's a literal hand of god. It's just a fitting name because of it's shape. Probably better than 'roughly human hand shaped exploding star matter no. 1' :p

Grand Master

HawkMan

Posted
Posted

I like the naming, it'll be as funny as when the 'god particle' was named

 

god-particle-atheists.gif

 

ignorant religious nuts who's never opened a single science book since first grade are a good source for funny though :)

Grand Master

compl3x

Posted
Posted

ignorant religious nuts who's never opened a single science book since first grade are a good source for funny though :)

 

Science is for commies, homos, and atheists. EXCEPT WHEN THEY NAME SOMETHING WITH THE WORD GOD IN IT!  :rofl:

 

 

 

As for the article, did NASA designate this the "Hand of God" or FoxNews' editorial department.

 

 

Also worth noting that the article ends with:

 

 

The Hand of God is an example of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of perceiving familiar shapes in random or vague images. Other common forms of pareidolia include seeing animals or faces in clouds, or the man in the moon. Despite its supernatural appearance, the Hand of God was produced by natural astrophysical phenomena.

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