How can the Universe frighten us? Is it its immensity, its silence, or its mysterious unknown darkness? Many features of the Universe could terrify us, but scientists concluded that there are specific spots in the cosmos that can be really scary.
Countless details of the Universe have been revealed through different observatories, so it was concluded that these astronomical sights hold within them deep and mysterious scientific truths that sometimes provoke terror within us.
[Photo: Tinker Bell Triplet / (ESO)]
The scariest places in the Universe:
10. The Bird or the Tinker Bell Triplet
It is formed by three galaxies colliding 650 million light-years away. This type of merger that spans three galaxies is very rare, plus this one appears to form the figure of a fairy or bird.
Because it resembles a bird is that it has received this name, being the “head” the third galaxy in composing it, and the “heart” and “body” the two main nuclei of galaxies in the middle of the tidal things that would be the “wings.” The latter extends over 100,000 light-years, the size of our Milky Way.
The “head” is currently forming stars at a rate of almost 200 solar masses per year, unlike the other two galaxies that seem to be in the quietest period of their history.
9. Eye of Sauron Nebula
This whirlpool is actually a planetary nebula known as ESO 456-67, emitted by a dying red giant star spewing its layers of dust and gas into space, located 10,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius in the southern sky.
8. Halloween Asteroid
Officially known as 2015 TB145, it is a 650-meter-wide asteroid that passed close to Earth in 2018. Observations of this asteroid have shown its rotating characters, which have a skull-like appearance.
It is expected to pass close to Earth again by 2082, at a distance of 50 million kilometers, which is one-third the distance between the Sun and the Earth. This could be one of the last opportunities to observe it, and more powerful telescopes will be needed.
7. Face on Mars
Images taken in 1976 by NASA’s Viking 1 orbiter revealed eerie Martian rock formations that look like faces in agony. Conspiracy theorists claim that this face is related to a ruined city on the red planet located a short distance from their discovery. However, subsequent analysis and images showed that these were only rock formations.
6. X-ray skull
It looks like a flaming space skull, but it is an X-ray emission from the central region of the Perseus cluster of galaxies. The Perseus cluster of galaxies is cataloged as Abell 426 and is part of the Pisces-Perseus supercluster, which contains more than 1,000 galaxies and spans about 15 million light-years.
[Photo: X-ray skull / (A. FABIAN (IOA CAMBRIDGE) ET AL., NASA)]
5. Ghost Head Nebula
Known as the glowing eyes 168,000 light-years from Earth are produced by newly formed massive stars. These glowing eyes are the most striking feature of the Ghost Head Nebula but are produced by different processes. The bright spots of hydrogen and oxygen are produced by a single bright star and a series of dust-covered stars.
4. Crouching Gargoyle
A young high-speed star illuminates the interstellar gas near this nebula giving it a frightening appearance and has revealed a gargoyle-like shape lurking in the background. This nebula is officially known as IRAS 05437+2502 and was discovered in 1980.
3. Skull Nebula
The nebula NGC 246 is known as a skull nebula because of the two glowing eyes seen in it. The central eye is actually a pair of binary stars, and the smaller, fainter one is responsible for the nebula because it is dying. Its outer layers have begun to peel off. This nebula is located 1,600 years from us, in the constellation Cetus.
[Photo: Ghost Nebula / (ADAM BLOCK/MOUNT LEMMON SKYCENTER/UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA)]
2. The Hand of God
This blue hand is X-ray emitting gas coming out of a central pulsar due to its winds supercharging the surrounding gas. The hand shape is a cosmic coincidence, and the red fuses at the fingertips are the nearby cloud RCW 89, which is also heated by pulsar winds.
1. Ghost Nebula
The dark nebula SH2-136 shows demonic silhouettes against its glowing stellar background. This is possible because it creates dust clouds of different sizes and shapes, and it is our perception that makes us identify these shapes as ghoulish creature chasing humans, so it seems to be constantly celebrating Halloween.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
