Nexus Anyone? Another Remarkable Image from the European Southern Observatory
If you think about it, the common expression “you can’t make this stuff up” is more often than not a wholly inaccurate and long-winded way of saying “wow.” The universe of things we can’t make up is presumably pretty confined, but then again, not really knowable is it?
Human beings in fact regularly “make up” all sorts of things, much of which can never come true. Sometimes however, we observe in nature or in the course of events things which are true, but have a startling resemblance to things we really did make up. In that vein, the latest stunning image from the ever prolific European Southern Observatory bears more than a little similarity to “the Nexus” from Star Trek Generations.
The full description of what is really a cloud of dust and interstellar gas viewed at submillimetre wavelengths can be found here.