Spectacular discovery: Dark energy camera in Chile snaps image of 'God’s hand' 1,300 light years away!

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, or NASA, frequently posts photos from other universes or deep space—places that are unreachable by humans. Another picture that they have shared shows a celestial body that resembles a hand.

NGC 3572 and the Southern Tadpoles. „God's Hand”: New images from the telescope capture a rare cosmic phenomenon, 1,300 light-years away pic.twitter.com/yO2TgJCKKz

— C Cortbawi (@bekfaya) May 13, 2024

God's hand in plain sight?

The image, according to the Live Science website, depicts CG 4, sometimes referred to as the "God's Hand," which is a "cometary globule." It is situated in the Puppis constellation within the Gum Nebula, 13,00 light years from Earth. This globule is the birthplace of the stars. Because of its comet-like shape and tail-like structure, scientists refer to it as a "cometary globule." It also resembles an outstretched arm, which is how "God's Hand" came to be.The image was captured by Chile's Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which is fixed atop the Blanco Telescope. It depicts the ESO 257-19 galaxy, which is poised to be ingested by the "arm," which resembles a head. Since the galaxy is located over 100 million light-years away, it is almost perfectly aligned with the globule, according to the website.

Scientists are fascinated!

It is yet unknown how cometary globules develop. Some scientists claim that the winds that are released by nearby blazing stars determine the shape of these objects. Others, however, speculate that these might be deformed spherical nebulas caused by a supernova collision. The Gum Nebula is a "large region of incandescent gas," according to the National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory (NOIRLab). Many of these globules are thought to represent the million-year-old remnants of a supernova. According to the lab, Gum Nebula is home to about 32 cometary globules.

The Gum Nebula is a massive but faint object, therefore, the "God's Hands" were captured with a special camera called DECam. It is equipped with 74 sensors and has a 570-megapixel resolution. At the top of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile is the Víctor M. Blanco Telescope.