Bottom Of The Barrel

Eye Of God???

This is indeed an authentic photograph — or rather, composite of photos — taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. It was featured on NASA's Website as an Astronomy Picture of the Day in May 2003 and thereafter posted on a number of Websites under the title "The Eye of God" [though I couldn't find evidence that NASA has ever referred to it as such].

The image depicts the so-called Helix Nebula [or it's technical designation of NGC 7293], described by astronomers as "a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases." At its center is dying, Sun-like star which has ejected masses of dust and gas to form tentacle-like filaments stretching toward an outer rim composed of the same material. The Sun itself may look like this in several billion years.

posted by TheWino @ 7:17 AM