"Hand
of God."
The hand was
produced when a star exploded and ejected an enormous cloud of material, which
NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, glimpsed in high-energy X-rays, shown in
blue in the photo. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory had imaged the green and
red parts previously, using lower-energy X-rays.
"NuSTAR's
unique viewpoint, in seeing the highest-energy X-rays, is showing us
well-studied objects and regions in a whole new light," NuSTAR principal
investigator Fiona Harrison, of the California Institute of Technology in
Pasadena, said in a statement.
The new
image depicts a pulsar wind nebula, produced by the dense remnant of a star
that exploded in a supernova. What's left behind is a pulsar, called
PSR B1509-58 (B1509 for short), which spins around 7 times per second blowing a
wind of particles into material ejected during the star's death throes.
As these
particles interact with nearby magnetic fields, they produce an X-ray glow in
the shape of a hand. (The pulsar is located near the bright white spot in the
image but cannot be seen itself, NASA officials said.)
Scientists
aren't sure whether the ejected material actually assumes the shape of a hand,
or whether its interaction with the pulsar's particles is just making it appear
that way.
"We
don't know if the hand shape is an optical illusion," Hongjun An, of
McGill University in Montreal, said in a statement. "With NuSTAR, the hand
looks more like a fist, which is giving us some clues."
The red
cloud appearing at the fingertips is a separate structure called RCW 89. The
pulsar's wind may be heating the cloud to produce the low-energy X-ray glow,
astronomers believe.
The X-ray
energies seen by NuSTAR range from 7 to 25 kiloelectron volts, or keV, whereas
the energies seen by Chandra range from 0.5 to 2 keV.
The Hand of
God is an example of pareidolia, the psychological phenomenon of
perceiving familiar shapes in random or vague images. Other common forms of
pareidolia include seeing animals or faces in clouds, or the man in the moon.
Despite its supernatural appearance, the Hand of God was produced by natural
astrophysical phenomena.
Sumber:
Sumber:
By By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer | SPACE.com – Fri, Jan 10,
2014
Bagi kita Orang Islam, tentu kita maklum dan faham, antaranya, seperti yang Allah (swt) firmankan dalam Ayat 82 Surah Yaasin:
Bagi kita Orang Islam, tentu kita maklum dan faham, antaranya, seperti yang Allah (swt) firmankan dalam Ayat 82 Surah Yaasin:
Sesungguhnya keadaan kekuasaanNya apabila Ia menghendaki
adanya sesuatu, hanyalah Ia berfirman kepada (hakikat) benda itu: "
Jadilah engkau! ". Maka ia terus menjadi
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