A Giant Red Eye Out in Space..

July 27th, 2007 | Categories: Photography | Tags:

Helix Nebula

Dust makes this cosmic eye look red. This eerie Spitzer Space Telescope
image shows infrared radiation from the well-studied Helix Nebula (NGC
7293), which is a mere 700 light-years away in the constellation
Aquarius. The two light-year diameter shroud of dust and gas around a
central white dwarf has long been considered an excellent example of a
planetary nebula, representing the final stages in the evolution of a
sun-like star. (source)

  1. February 16th, 2008 at 07:45
    Reply | Quote | #1

    Impressive! Thanks for posting this fusion of science and art.

  2. Peter
    February 16th, 2008 at 08:11
    Reply | Quote | #2

    cool!

  3. Foofy
    February 16th, 2008 at 12:29
    Reply | Quote | #3

    FOOOOOF!!

  4. cjsavvy
    February 16th, 2008 at 13:14
    Reply | Quote | #4

    Absolutely stupendous. A giant all seeing eye in the sky.

  5. Al
    February 16th, 2008 at 15:46
    Reply | Quote | #5

    No, not dust makes it red. It was artificially colored. You can see it in the web under various names in different colorings like “Eye of God” or “Eye of Sauron” and such…

    Still a nice pic.

  6. Jack
    February 16th, 2008 at 20:35
    Reply | Quote | #6

    Sweet.

  7. Entropy
    February 19th, 2008 at 15:46
    Reply | Quote | #7

    Al is right, this image is heavily edited. Try nasa.gov for the real pic.

    http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_486.html

  8. Jacob
    February 22nd, 2008 at 02:09
    Reply | Quote | #8

    I believe this is called a… God’s Eye or summat…

  9. bill m
    March 2nd, 2008 at 15:23
    Reply | Quote | #9

    no, it’s known as “sauron”….