NASA has shared a photo of a nebula whose appearance strongly resembles that of a bat.
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The Cosmos regularly offers us surprising shows. From our point of view as earthlings, certain structures remind us of known shapes, such as trees, hands or… animals. There NASA she herself admits to being surprised by the resemblance that a nebula has with a well-known mammal of our planet.
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A bat flying in the immensity of space
Looking at this photo published by NASA, you might think you see a bat against a black starry background. You will have understood, it is a pareidoliaan optical illusion making us recognize a familiar shape in a completely random setting.
Of course, NASA hasn’t captured a flying mammal, but the resemblance is still striking: it really looks like a bat, with wings, ears, an eye and even a mouth.
On its website, Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Agency explains the origin of this cosmic bat-signal
-“What is the scariest nebula in the galaxy? One candidate is LDN 43, which looks strikingly like a vast cosmic bat flying among the stars on a dark Halloween night.”
A not-so-distant nebula
This bat is therefore a nebula, made of gas and dust. Located 1400 light years from us, LDN43 is a stellar nursery. And a big one, since it measures 12 light years!
This is not the first time that NASA and other astronomers have associated space shapes with landscapes or Earth objects. We particularly remember the cosmic “Christmas tree” that NASA shared on its site, in December 2023. Once again, the resemblance was striking!
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