Skip to main content

Dark Energy Camera captures the gorgeous ‘God’s Hand’ globule

This cloudy, ominous structure is CG 4, a cometary globule nicknamed ‘God’s Hand’. CG 4 is one of many cometary globules present within the Milky Way, and how these objects get their distinct form is still a matter of debate among astronomers. This image was captured by the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. In it, the features that classify CG 4 as a cometary globule are hard to miss. Its dusty head and long, faint tail vaguely resemble the appearance of a comet, though they have nothing in common. Astronomers theorize that cometary globules get their structure from the stellar winds of nearby hot, massive stars.
This cloudy, ominous structure is CG 4, a cometary globule nicknamed ‘God’s Hand’. CG 4 is one of many cometary globules present within the Milky Way, and how these objects get their distinct form is still a matter of debate among astronomers.  CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)

A stunning new image from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) shows the glowing structures of the Gum Nebula illuminated by the hot, massive stars studded throughout this cloud of dust and gas. Located 1,300 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis, this image highlights an unusually shaped structure in the nebula that looks like a hand reaching out into space. Nicknamed “God’s Hand,” the structure is a type of object called a cometary globule.

A cometary globule is a particularly dense cloud of dust and gas with an unusual comet-like shape. They tend to have a compact head, with a long trailing tail, like the comets from which they get their name. But while comets are made of rock and ice, and have tails due to ice sublimating as the comet approaches a warm star, the cometary globules get their tails through a different process. They are also much, much larger. In this case, the God’s Hand globule has a huge head that is 1.5 light-years across, and its tail is eight light-years long.

Recommended Videos

Technically known as CG 4, this cometry globule is in fact on the smaller size for membership in a group called Bok globules. The (relatively) small size compared to whole nebulae or galaxies makes the globules hard to spot, as they tend to be quite faint. “With its special Hydrogen-alpha filter, DECam can pick up the faint red glow of ionized hydrogen present within CG 4’s head and around its outer rim,” NOIRLab explains. “This light is produced when hydrogen becomes excited after being bombarded by radiation from nearby hot, massive stars.”

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Scientists are still figuring out what processes create cometary globules, but they have noticed that there are many of them within this nebula in particular. Researchers think either they could have been formed after starting life as spherical nebulae. They were then disrupted by the supernova that created the Gum Nebula. Or they could be shaped by winds and radiation from nearby hot stars.

Georgina Torbet
Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…
Spiral galaxy caught in the act as it’s about to eat its dwarf galaxy neighbor
The spiral galaxy NGC 1532, also known as Haley’s Coronet, is caught in a lopsided tug of war with its smaller neighbor, the dwarf galaxy NGC 1531. The image — taken by the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Dark Energy Camera mounted on the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab — captures the mutual gravitational influences of a massive- and dwarf-galaxy merger.

A recent image from the Dark Energy Camera shows an act of galactic cannibalism, with a spiral galaxy similar to our Milky Way about to devour a nearby dwarf galaxy that has wandered into its path.

The dramatic interaction is occurring between a large spiral galaxy known as Haley's Coronet and a smaller dwarf galaxy called NGC 1531. The dwarf galaxy is in the process of merging with the larger galaxy, which is being pulled into an irregular shape by the gravitational forces.

Read more
Researchers want to use gravitational waves to learn about dark matter
Artist's conception shows two merging black holes similar to those detected by LIGO.

When two sufficiently massive objects collide -- such as when two black holes merge -- the forces can actually bend space-time, creating ripples called gravitational waves. These gravitational waves can be detected even from millions of light-years away, making them a way to learn about distant, dramatic events in far-off parts of the universe. And now, a team of astronomers has come up with a method for using gravitational waves to study the mysterious phenomenon of dark matter.

The idea of the research was to create different computer models of what gravitational waves from black hole mergers would look like in universes with different types of dark matter. By comparing the models to what is seen in the real world, we can learn more about what type of dark matter is most likely.

Read more
Euclid mission launches to probe the mysteries of dark matter
This artist’s concept shows the ESA (European Space Agency) Euclid mission in space.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has successfully launched its Euclid space telescope to study the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy. The spacecraft launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with liftoff at 11:12 a.m. ET (8:12 a.m. PT).

This artist’s concept shows the ESA (European Space Agency) Euclid mission in space. ESA, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Read more