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01-11-2014, 02:00 PM | |
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An image that's dubbed "The Hand of God" by Astronomers
'Hand of God' captured in NASA image What looks like an X-ray of a hand is actually the remains of a star that exploded 17,000 light-years away. The astronomers who captured this image with a NASA space telescope call it the "Hand of God." "We don't know if the hand shape is an optical illusion," said Hongjun An of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in a statement from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission. What the image shows is a pulsar wind nebula, a dying star and the cloud of materials left over from the star after it exploded. The particles are interacting with nearby magnetic fields, causing the particles to glow in the image, according to NuSTAR. It's unclear whether the nebula looks like a hand because of the way the particles interact with the magnetic fields or if the particles are actually shaped like a hand. NuSTAR says the star is about 12 miles in diameter and spins at nearly seven times a second. As the star spins, it spews particles "upheaved during the star's violent death." The NuSTAR space telescope was launched in June 2012 with the goal of observing black holes, dead and exploded stars and "other extreme objects," according to NuSTAR. |
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01-11-2014, 02:49 PM | #16 |
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It would be incredible to be able to get out there and take a look.
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01-11-2014, 02:56 PM | #17 |
best in the biz
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ah the singing and harmony....
the heavens declare. |
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01-11-2014, 03:38 PM | #18 | |
Debunking your bullshit
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01-11-2014, 03:38 PM | #19 |
It Goes On
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01-11-2014, 03:43 PM | #20 | |
Debunking your bullshit
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I don't think you can really see it "close up." At a different distance or angle it wouldn't look like that. If you were close enough, you probably wouldn't even know you were looking at anything unusual.
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01-11-2014, 03:52 PM | #21 |
pie is never free
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Theres a lot of sense there, from several thousand miles away I would think you could make it out... I dunno though, but its an interesting question what the right distance is to actually see it all.
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01-11-2014, 03:57 PM | #22 |
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I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you? |
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01-11-2014, 03:59 PM | #23 |
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Nah, it's really not a big deal. Look at the various constellations. Just based on our own particular viewing angle people named groups of stars after mythological figures. That's like driving by a group of trees at 75 MPH, thinking one looks like your Uncle Frank, and naming the spot Frank's Field. It's no more meaningful than that.
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01-11-2014, 04:04 PM | #24 |
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That's amazing. Is that a toasted cheese with three pieces of bread?
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I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you? |
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01-11-2014, 04:05 PM | #25 |
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Looks more like the Hand of Homer Reaching for Bacon. Mmmmmmm Bacon......
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01-11-2014, 04:07 PM | #26 |
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You've never done that?
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01-11-2014, 04:07 PM | #27 |
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I think the young people enjoy it when I "get down," verbally, don't you? |
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01-11-2014, 04:10 PM | #28 |
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I prefer a grilled cheese sandwich over a toasted one myself.
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01-11-2014, 04:11 PM | #29 |
A certain set of skills
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01-11-2014, 04:18 PM | #30 |
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Unless one actually uses a grill, is it really a "grilled cheese" sandwich?
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