On April 24, 2007 - the 17th anniversary of Hubble's launch - the Space Telescope Science Institute released a devastating picture of the Carina Nebula, a ridiculously complex and gorgeous star forming region about 7500 light years from Earth. Here's the picture:
Like I said, gorgeous! [Click to keelhaulenate.] Any structure with that kind of detail in it is going to spark your brain, making you see all sorts of things in it like faces, animals, and so on. This is called pareidolia, and is one of my favorite things of all time. It's so fun, in fact, that the folks at the Institute are holding a monthly contest which they call the Hubble Heritage Creative Challenge [Facebook link], and this month's contest is to find examples of pareidolia in the Carina Nebula. They have a few that have been submitted already on display. It's not hard to find things ...
