Religion and astronomy may not overlap
often, but a new NASA X-ray image
captures a celestial object that resembles
the "Hand of God."
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 hand might look like an X-ray from
the doctor's office, but it is actually a
cloud of material ejected from a star that
exploded. NASA's NuSTAR spacecraft has
imaged the structure in high-energy X-
rays for the first time, shown in blue.
Lower-energy X-ray light previously
detected by NASA's Chandra X-ray
Observatory is shown in green and red.
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.
As these particles interact with nearby
magnetic fields, they produce an X-ray
glow in the shape of a hand. (The pulsar
is located near the bright white spot in
the image but cannot be seen itself, NASA
officials said.)
Scientists aren't sure whether the ejected
material actually assumes the shape of a
hand, or whether its interaction with the
pulsar's particles is just making it appear
that way.
"We don't know if the hand shape is an
optical illusion," Hongjun An, of McGill
University in Montreal, said in a
statement. "With NuSTAR, the hand looks
more like a fist, which is giving us some
clues."
The red cloud appearing at the fingertips
is a separate structure called RCW 89.
The pulsar's wind may be heating the
cloud to produce the low-energy X-ray
glow, astronomers believe.
The X-ray energies seen by NuSTAR range
from 7 to 25 kiloelectron volts, or keV,
whereas the energies seen by Chandra
range from 0.5 to 2 keV.
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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Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Source : http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4572622

Hmmm

Science is too good but for this one science na mumu.