Is this Godzilla? This NASA Spitzer Space Telescope image shows an infrared view from a nebula located in the constellation of Sagittarius. It may look like the sci-fi monster.
Data from a dead space telescope reveals a gas cloud looking remarkably like the sci-fi monster Godzilla.
You can see monster features like glowing eyes, a roaring stomach, and even a glowing hand or paw in an infrared image taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
The shape may be a coincidence of cosmic proportions, but the new image shows the importance of continuing to use Telescopic data after a mission is completed. Here's imagery from the NASA Spitzer Space Telescope, nearly two years after its operations ceased in January 2000.
Although you could argue that it was a zombie telescope which saw the so-called monster in outer space, the person who processed the image didn’t see it that way. Robert Hurt, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology, stated that he wasn't looking for monsters in a statement released by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Similar: These Scary Things from Space Will Haunt your Dreams
This is the same infrared image taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Robert Hurt, Caltech astronomer, has drawn an outline of its features and identified this Godzilla in the cosmic clouds. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Hurt said that he just happened to look at a part of the sky that I've seen many times before but had never zoomed in on. He has also created most of the public images using Spitzer data since 2003. Sometimes, if you crop an area differently, you can see something you didn't before. It was my eyes and mouth that roared "Godzilla!"
People who view cosmic images may be more susceptible to pareidolia. This is a scientific term for the tendency of humans to see faces in random data. The famous Face on Mars is a 1976 Viking 1 orbital data example. Viking was flying overhead when the shadows were aligned on a rock feature. This created the appearance of a face.
JPL joked about other examples of pareidolia that astronomers found in Spitzer data. These included a black widow spider and a Jack-o'Lantern. A snake, an exposed brain and even "Star Trek"'s Starship Enterprise.
Gallery: Strange Nebula Shapes, How Do You See Them?
Hurt stated that this fantasy approach to otherwise serious science is one of the ways people can connect to Spitzer's work. I look for areas that are compelling and can tell a story. Sometimes it's about the formation of stars and planets, sometimes it's about a gigantic monster ravaging Tokyo.
This image shows the real-life Godzilla region. It was captured by Spitzer during a program called GLIMPSE. GLIMPSE surveyed a plane of the Milky Way galaxy using four wavelengths of infrared light and produced 440,000 images, this image included.
JPL stated that the stars in the upper left, which is where cosmic Godzilla's eyes and nose would be, were at an unknown distance from Earth, but are within our galaxy. The bright area in the lower left Godzilla's right hand, located 7,800 light years from Earth is called W33.
This material is rich in star-forming stuff. As young stars formed, their radiation blew out the surrounding dust and gas, JPL observed. Supernovae, which are the explosions of massive older stars that produce supernovas, can cause changes in the area. This can scatter heavy elements into the surrounding area and allow them to coalesce into other objects or planets.
Spitzer's infrared vision allowed scientists to gain more information about the region that is otherwise covered with dust and invisible to human eyes. The four colors Spitzer used are blue, cyan and green, respectively. Yellow and white, however, can be combined with any of these wavelengths. If you are looking for dust, it is in green and red. Red is the dust that has been heated by supernovas or stars.
The Spitzer Artistronomy web application at the California Institute of Technology allows you to create your own Spitzer data creatures.
Follow Elizabeth Howell @howellspace or Space.com @Spacedotcom. We are also on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Original article at Space.com
