"Eye of God" is staring at us from Space!

This is the “Eye of God”.  It is a cloud of stellar dust and gases of the Helix Nebula.  This picture was posted on NASA’s Website as an Astronomy Picture of the Day in May 2003.  It shows a dying star and the gases around it.  One day our own sun will look like this …..and “we” – earthlings, and our scriptures, Gods, Churches, Mosques, Temples – will be less than a speck in that dust!!  So much for our obsession with “Day of Judgments” and the “End of the world” 🙂 End of the “world” is not even worth fretting about in the “Eye of God”.  In fact many billions of “worlds” are ENDING as we speak!! 🙂  So, big deal!

With the dying star at the center the gases are what the astronomers call the “a trillion-mile-long tunnel of glowing gases”.  Here is how the Wikipedia describes this thing scientifically:

The Helix or NGC 7293, is a large planetary nebula (PN) located in the constellation of Aquarius. Discovered by Karl Ludwig Harding, probably before 1824, this object is one of the closest to the Earth of all the bright planetary nebulae.  The estimated distance is about 215 parsecs or 700 light-years. It is similar in appearance to the Ring Nebula, whose size, age, and physical characteristics are similar to the Dumbbell Nebula, varying only in its relative proximity and the appearance from the equatorial viewing angle.

Interesting that what seems so much like a human eye.. only “appears” to be.  And interestingly, if one were to look AT the human eye, one would realize that even that only “appears” to be.  First, its not what makes one “see”.  It is merely a window.. from where light comes in.  Brain sees things!  And even if you look at what it is at the microscopic and sub atomic level.. you will find that its a just a wave energy.  Nothing more than that.

In a way, at the most basic level the “Eye of God” and our own eye have the same structure at their most foundational level.  Intriguing huh!?

Reference Links:

1. Helix Nebula
Image Credit: NASA, WIYN, NOAO, ESA, Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), & T. A. Rector (NRAO).