Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.What appears to be a ghostly hand reaching across the universe toward a defenseless spiral galaxy in a new telescope image is a rarely seen cosmic phenomenon, according to astronomers.The Dark Energy Camera captured a stunning image of “God’s Hand,” a cometary globule 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Puppis constellation. The camera is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.Cometary globules are a type of Bok globule, or dark nebula. These isolated cosmic clouds are filled with dense gas and dust, which are surrounded by hot, energetic material. Cometary globules are unique because they have extended tails, like those seen on comets — but that’s the only cometlike thing about them.Astronomers still don’t know how cometary globules come to exist in such distinctive structures. Historically, it’s also been hard for scientists to detect the faint clouds.The new image of the glowing red hand-like feature showcases CG 4, one of many cometary globules found across the Milky Way galaxy. The twisting cloud appears to be reaching for a spiral galaxy known as ESO 257-19 (PGC 21338). But the galaxy is more than 100 million light-years away from the cometary globule.CG 4 has a main dusty head, which resembles a hand, that measures 1.5 light-years across, and it has a long tail that stretches for 8 light-years. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).A surprising celestial discove …
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[mwai_chat context=”Let’s have a discussion about this article:nnSign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.What appears to be a ghostly hand reaching across the universe toward a defenseless spiral galaxy in a new telescope image is a rarely seen cosmic phenomenon, according to astronomers.The Dark Energy Camera captured a stunning image of “God’s Hand,” a cometary globule 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Puppis constellation. The camera is mounted on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.Cometary globules are a type of Bok globule, or dark nebula. These isolated cosmic clouds are filled with dense gas and dust, which are surrounded by hot, energetic material. Cometary globules are unique because they have extended tails, like those seen on comets — but that’s the only cometlike thing about them.Astronomers still don’t know how cometary globules come to exist in such distinctive structures. Historically, it’s also been hard for scientists to detect the faint clouds.The new image of the glowing red hand-like feature showcases CG 4, one of many cometary globules found across the Milky Way galaxy. The twisting cloud appears to be reaching for a spiral galaxy known as ESO 257-19 (PGC 21338). But the galaxy is more than 100 million light-years away from the cometary globule.CG 4 has a main dusty head, which resembles a hand, that measures 1.5 light-years across, and it has a long tail that stretches for 8 light-years. A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, which is 5.88 trillion miles (9.46 trillion kilometers).A surprising celestial discove …nnDiscussion:nn” ai_name=”RocketNews AI: ” start_sentence=”Can I tell you more about this article?” text_input_placeholder=”Type ‘Yes'”]
