The "eye of God"

«It happens once every 3000 years…»

This could be considered a rather innocent matter, a false fact that may not generate greater commotion in the community, since it is not announced as the prophecy of a catastrophe, of an event that will change our lives or something of that nature; It is an email chain (of the many that circulate on the Internet), alluding to a supposedly divine image that works miracles, if it is forwarded to a certain number of people. In reality, all chains of this type have no scientific basis and only serve to saturate our mail with useless messages, but I thought it was important to demystify this chain in particular, because it alludes to an astronomical object described incorrectly. The chain is like this:

Pseudoscience says...

This photo is very rare, it was taken by NASA. This type of event happens once every 3,000 years. This photo has done miracles in many lives. Make a wish…. you are looking at the eye of God. You will surely see the changes in your life during the day. Believe it or not, don’t keep this email with you. Pass it on to at least 7 people. This photo was taken by NASA with the Hubble telescope. It is called: “THE EYE OF GOD. Too amazing to delete. Share it. For the next 60 seconds, stop whatever you are doing and have the chance (literally it is one minute). Send this photo to your friends and see what happens. Please do not break this.

Science says...

It is extremely easy to check that the image attached to the chain (which appears next to the title of the article), is simply the planetary nebula "Helix" (catalogued as NGC 7293), which is located in the constellation of Aquarius. It is an object known by amateur astronomers and very beautiful to observe and photograph, due to its structure and colors. Some technical data of this object is that it is located about 650 light years away, and occupies about 2.5 light years in extension. It has an apparent magnitude of +7.3 and can be found at the following coordinates: Declination: -20° 50′ 13.2″; Right Ascension: 22h 29m 38.35s. It is one of the closest planetary nebulas to Earth.