A photo featuring a neutron surrounded by a cloud of energetic particles was recently shared by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on its social media profile.
The star named PSR B1509-58 is hanging around 17, 000 light-years away from the Earth. The image was captured in 2009 by the Chandra X-ray Observatory of NASA.
The image had surprised many in 2009 when it came to light. A hand like-shape was claimed to be seen in the X-ray emission of the image. At the same, some viewers had reportedly claimed to see a face in WISE’s infrared data.
“When this image from of PSR B1509-58 – a spinning neutron star surrounded by a cloud of energetic particles about 17,000 light-years from Earth – was released in 2009, it created a ton of hype because people saw a hand-like shape in the X-ray emission. Pareidolia vibes were strong.
X-rays from Chandra in gold are seen along with infrared data from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) telescope in red, green, and blue. Pareidolia struck again as others reported seeing a shape of a face in WISE’s infrared data,” the caption read.
The term ‘Pareidolia’ is used to discover familiar objects or particular patterns in random objects, like seeing shapes in clouds.
