'Godzilla in the sky': Spitzer Space telescope's stunning image resembles Jurassic legend

Since Halloween is just around the corner, the Spitzer Space Telescope has gifted us this year's present with a stunning green image of a nebula. However, the picture has much more to it than what's apparent as the nebula can be spotted resembling the Jurassic legend Godzilla. Located in the constellation Sagittarius, the pattern was first processed by Caltech astronomer Robert Hurt, who also spotted the 'hidden creature' in the speck of dust and clouds.

Talking about the discovery, Hurt said, "I wasn’t looking for monsters. I just happened to glance at a region of sky that I’ve browsed many times before, but I’d never zoomed in on. Sometimes if you just crop an area differently, it brings out something that you didn’t see before. It was the eyes and mouth that roared ‘Godzilla’ to me."

According to NASA, some individuals have a special gift called 'Pareidolia' that enables them to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern. Hunt's discovery is also being attributed to this human tendency. Many scientists in the past have spotted a number of patterns like a 'black widow spider', a 'Jack-o-Lantern', a 'snake', an 'exposed human brain', and the 'Starship Enterprise'. 

Know more about the 'Godzilla'

Detailing the image, NASA revealed that the Godzilla-like nebula located in the constellation Sagittarius, along the plane of the Milky Way, was part of Spitzer’s Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire (GLIMPSE) survey. The stars that you see in the upper right are at an unknown distance from Earth but the bright region in the lower left, a region known as W33, is about 7,800 light-years from Earth. 

The Spitzer telescope has captured numerous such images of galaxies and nebulas using infrared light (having higher penetration than visible light) that can invade even thick clouds, revealing hidden regions in the universe. This particular nebula was also hidden behind a curtain of clouds and dust and discovering such regions become impossible in visible light (which human eyes can detect). This proves that the data produced by the Spitzer telescope is still being mined by astronomers although it retired in 2020. Launched in 2003, the telescope was deployed by NASA to peer into cosmic regions that are hidden from optical telescopes, including dusty stellar nurseries, the centres of galaxies, and newly forming planetary systems. 

Image: NASA