NASA captures the Flaming Fist of God 17,000 light-years away from us

[kristopher]

I'm fairly sure they left the words "image of" out of the headline, but it's still a great read.

Humans like to see things where there's nothing but visual patterns. Even NASA: the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured an "image [that] shows the energized remains of a dead star, a structure nicknamed the Hand of God after its resemblance to a hand." Except now it looks more like The Flaming Fist of God.

According to Hongjun An of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, they "don't know if the hand shape is an optical illusion. With NuSTAR, the hand looks more like a fist, which is giving [them] some clues." I can see the fist in flames too, surrounding the knuckles.

One of the big mysteries of this object, called a pulsar wind nebula, is whether the pulsar's particles are interacting with the material in a specific way to make it appear as a hand, or if the material is in fact shaped like a hand.

But besides this cosmic Rorschach test, the important thing is that NASA's NuStar is giving us a "unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light," according to Fiona Harrison, the mission's principal investigator at CalTech, in Pasadena, California.

This is what astronomers think is actually happening:

The image shows a ...

http://sploid.gizmodo.com/nasa-captures-the-flaming-fist-of-god-17-000-light-year-1498529557

Expanded image available at link

[Warren DeMontague]

1. I don't see a hand

I see a "Psychedelic Republican"

[Benton D Struckcheon]

2. Good that they changed the name

This is the real Hand of God. Dipsydoodle would tell you all about it, I'm sure:

[sakabatou]

3. Reminds me more of Gogeta's stardust breaker more than God.

[lastlib]

4. I thought it was LeBron blocking a shot.....

[demwing]

5. Awsome pic

and fun to watch people pretending it doesn't look like a giant hand:

[hobbit709]

6. God giving the universe the finger