james webb telescope I took another great picture Kind of like space, but this one stood out. Because there seemed to be a mysterious question mark shape floating between the stars.of image The story went viral this week, with social media users questioning whether it was a sign from aliens. So what’s the question mark?
Matt Caplan, an assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University who has a PhD in the field, told CBS News that it’s not uncommon to see recognizable shapes in space. “You may be surprised how often objects in space appear to have recognizable shapes. There are so many simple shapes, and our brains are very good at recognizing patterns, even when the patterns are meaningless.” I am,” he said in an email.
The brain’s tendency to recognize patterns is called pareidolia. “For the same reason that you can ‘see’ all kinds of fun things when you look at the clouds, and ‘hear’ weird lyrics when you listen to a song backwards,” he says. “The lower the resolution and the more vague the stimulus, the more information the human brain tends to cram.”
Space Telescope Science Institute
So our brain interprets the shape as a question mark. One theory as to why question mark shapes appear in the universe is that telescopes have caught merging galaxies, which is also a common occurrence, Kaplan said.
Between 10% and 25% of galaxies could be merging at any given time, he said.
“A lot of people think of galaxies as little stationary islands in space, but nothing is fixed in space,” he says. “Stars move in orbit around galaxies, and galaxies made of gas and stars move in a direction that pulls them toward the gravitational pull of nearby galaxies. For the record, the same thing happens. The same is true for our Sun and the Milky Way.”
Space Telescope Science Institute
galaxy flies stars and gas tide tail when they merge. Tides are long streams of stars that appear curved. So the curved shape that made the question mark could be a tidal tail.
image Taken with a telescope It shows the star-forming cloud Herbig Halo 46/47, unveiled last month, Kaplan explained. When viewed through a telescope, the star looks like an object with her six points. That’s why the question mark is more than just a star, it doesn’t look like any other star.
Webproject scientist Macarena Garcia Marin of the Space Telescope Science Institute told CBS News that he believed a galactic merger was the most likely explanation. “A closer look at the image reveals two bright spots that may be the nucleus of the galaxy, while the remainder of the structure is thought to be the result of tidal interaction processes.” We need additional data to do that.”Structure,” Mullin told CBS News in an email.
Kaplan said the photo was Highest resolution image This could teach scientists more about star-forming clouds. “About the question mark? It’s just a funny curiosity. The whole story is astronomically the same as ‘a local found a chicken nugget shaped like George Washington,'” he said.