Halloween is coming, NASA scientists discover "Godzilla" in a nebula

With Halloween approaching, NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope captures a gorgeous view of a nebula filled with gas and dust, CNET reported. Robert Hurt, an astronomer at the California Institute of Technology who was in charge of working on the images taken by Spitzer, observed more than just space scenes, he also saw "Godzilla."

"I'm not looking for monsters," Hurt said in a statement from NASA JPL this week. "I just happened to catch a glimpse of an area of the sky that I've browsed many times before, but I've never zoomed in. Sometimes, if you just crop an area differently, it brings out something you haven't seen before. It was these eyes and mouth that yelled 'Godzilla' out to me. ”

NASA JPL has created a handy version of the Nebula Overview to highlight Godzilla-like features. The nebula is located in the constellation Sagittarius. The different colors in the image represent different wavelengths of light.

Spitzer was retired in 2020, and while it may no longer be active, the telescope's scientific legacy remains. "I look for compelling areas that can really tell a story," Hurt said. "Sometimes it's a story about how stars and planets formed, sometimes it's a story about a giant monster wreaking havoc in Tokyo."