Massive ‘God’s hand’ captured in Dark Energy Camera, it’s eight light-years long

The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) has captured what scientistsare callinga massive 'God's hand', reaching out for a distantgalaxy,named ESO 257-19 (PGC 21338). The massiveformation is located 1,300 light-years from Earth within our Milky Way galaxy andis seenin the constellation Puppis.

What is God's hand?

Don't worry; there is nothing supernatural about it. God's hand isactuallya cometary globule,named CG 4. Usually, cometary globules are hard to detect because theyare formedof dense clouds of gas and dust surrounded by hot, ionised material.

The CG 4 issimplymassive and huge, with its length extending for about eight light-years and its width extending 1.5 light-years across.

These globules are highly mysterious as the cause of their structure is not known yet. Although, scientists speculate these could be formed by stellar winds that flow from the hot, massive stars surroundingthem,or from the supernovas that occur when these stars die.

But despite itbeing shroudedin secrecy, the Dark Energy Camera can detect it, thanks to a Hydrogen-alpha filter which picks the faint glow of ionized hydrogen.

In the image, it looks like the 'god's hand' is about to grip ESO 257-19 (PGC 21338), but in reality, the distance between them is about 100 million light-years.

Cometary globule and comet

It is tobe notedthat these cometaryglobuleshave nothing to do with comets. They are nebulae with long tails of gas and dust being shaped and stripped by the hot ionized material around them.

Although cometary globules are found everywhere in the Milky Way,aspecialregion known as the Gum Nebula houses some 32 globules.

Gum Nebula is ahugecloud of gas around 1,400 light-years awaythatis spreadacross the constellations Puppis and Vela.Gum 12is thoughtto be the expanding remnants of a massive star that died in a supernova explosion around a million years ago.

(With inputs from agencies)