{"id":1347,"date":"2014-12-10T19:57:39","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T19:57:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.austrinus.com\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2022-11-22T19:04:17","modified_gmt":"2022-11-22T22:04:17","slug":"ojo-de-dios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/ojo-de-dios\/","title":{"rendered":"The "eye of God""},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00abIt happens once every 3000 years\u2026\u00bb<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"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:<\/p>\n

Pseudoscience says...<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

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\u2026. 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\u2019t 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: \u201cTHE 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.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Science says...<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00b0 50\u2032 13.2\u2033; Right Ascension: 22h 29m 38.35s. It is one of the closest planetary nebulas to Earth.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What is a planetary nebula?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Credit JP Harrington and KJ Borkowski (University of Maryland), and NASA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is what remains of a star in the final stages of its life. In those with between 0.08 and 8 initial solar masses, after having spent a large part of their life in the main sequence, their fuel begins to run out and they begin a series of reactions that lead them to become a red giant star, causing them to collapse. expand several times its original size. When this happens, the star becomes unstable and inevitably heads towards its collapse, a process in which the star expels its outer layers, leaving in its center a small white dwarf, very dense and maintained by a process called repulsion between electrons.<\/p>\n

The ejected layers are composed mainly of hydrogen, while the white dwarf emits UV radiation; therefore, the hydrogen atoms ionize (expel their electrons) and in the process emit visible photons, which together produce the beautiful structures common to planetary nebulae (by the way, the term "planetary" only refers to the fact that their shape is usually spheroidal, similar to a planet).<\/p>\n

The chain's mistake is to mention that this phenomenon occurs once every 3,000 years. In reality, many planetary nebulae are known, duly cataloged and each one sporting a particular structure. The time it takes for a star to become a planetary nebula is directly related to its initial mass, since the lower the mass, the longer it will take to consume its fuel; The greater the mass, the faster it will be. To give a concrete example, the destiny of the Sun will be to become a planetary nebula. Our star is already 5 billion years old, and it has another 5 billion years left before its fuel begins to run out. The process between the final ejection of the outer layers and its state as a planetary nebula is very slow and gradual, it does not appear instantly.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

simple coincidences<\/strong><\/p>\n

The image of the Helix planetary nebula was indeed taken by the Hubble telescope. As stated before, these objects can have various shapes and it should not be surprising that other nebulae have a structure that is quite symmetrical or similar to an object or animal known to us. In fact, below I present 3 common examples of objects that also remind us, just by coincidence, of certain known things. Regarding the Helix Nebula, it is not officially recognized as the "eye of God", although popularly (and helped by the chain of
\ne-mail) could be considered as such. It should be noted, however, that this unofficial designation does not affect astronomy in any way, unless it is used to show that this nebula actually has a "divine" character or that it "grants miracles." It is simply an astronomical object, although extremely beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"\"Featured Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nebula known as "Horse's head<\/strong>\u00ab, also catalogued as B33. It is located in the constellation of Orion, very close to the star Alnitak, in the Orion Belt. It is a dark nebula with a shape very similar to the head of a horse, which is part of a much larger complex of molecular clouds.<\/p>\n

\"\"Dust particles around the bright star Fomalhaut, the brightest star in Piscis Austrinus, were taken by the Hubble telescope and show a structure very similar to the famous "Eye of Sauron<\/strong>\u00bb from the epic saga\u00a0The Lord of the rings<\/strong>. It is one of several disks of dust and debris that surround this star, the brightest in the constellation Piscis Austrinus.<\/p>\n

Star of death?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Saturn's satellite Mimas shows a huge crater that almost destroyed it at one point. It is often renamed the "Star of death<\/strong>", due to its great resemblance to the gigantic space station used as a super-weapon in the saga\u00a0Star Wars<\/strong>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt happens once every 3000 years\u2026\u201d This could be considered a rather innocent matter, a false fact that may not cause much commotion in the community, since it is not announced as a prophecy of a catastrophe, of an event that will change our lives or something like that; it is a chain mail\u2026<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6660,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-desmitificacion"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-150x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-300x200.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-768x512.jpg","large":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg","trp-custom-language-flag":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Farid","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57e8aa07b0d16e13c8408ea413c009fc7da05f4cbb36da0d568b4235b1eaee6b?s=96&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":false,"magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"\u00abOcurre una vez cada 3000 a\u00f1os…\u00bb Este podr\u00eda considerarse como un asunto m\u00e1s bien inocente, un hecho falso que puede no generar mayor conmoci\u00f3n en la comunidad, pues no se lo anuncia como la profec\u00eda de una cat\u00e1strofe, de una hecho que cambiar\u00e1 nuestras vidas o algo por el estilo; es una cadena de correo…","magazineBlocksPostCategories":["Desmitificaci\u00f3n"],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":4480,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":6,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg",800,533,false],"medium":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-150x150.jpg",150,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Farid","author_link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/author\/farid\/"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/57e8aa07b0d16e13c8408ea413c009fc7da05f4cbb36da0d568b4235b1eaee6b?s=96&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"Desmitificaci\u00f3n<\/a>","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg",800,533,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg",640,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg",800,533,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg",800,533,false],"trp-custom-language-flag":["https:\/\/austrinus.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/debunk-ojodedios.jpg",18,12,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Farid","author_link":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/author\/farid\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"\u00abOcurre una vez cada 3000 a\u00f1os…\u00bb Este podr\u00eda considerarse como un asunto m\u00e1s bien inocente, un hecho falso que puede no generar mayor conmoci\u00f3n en la comunidad, pues no se lo anuncia como la profec\u00eda de una cat\u00e1strofe, de una hecho que cambiar\u00e1 nuestras vidas o algo por el estilo; es una cadena de correo…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1347"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6880,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1347\/revisions\/6880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/austrinus.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}