- Date: 6 Feb 2015
- Comments: (0)
- Categories: For Everyone, Images/Videos
A Facial Optical Illusion
*The exposure time was set to be long enough to bring out the faint details of the nebula and as a result the illuminating star was overexposed, producing this odd effect. -Tom Geballe, Gemini Astronomer
Humans have a long history of ‘seeing’ familiar objects in photographs taken of unfamiliar landscapes. Examples like the man in the moon, or the face on Mars are everywhere. Often these are caused by light and shadows, and always involve the human imagination. However, in this case it’s due to the limitations* of the tools used, which caused pixels to oversaturate and create the optical illusion of an emoticon-like ‘face.’ Gemini staff observers Jennifer Miller and Michael Pohlen got a surprise when they examined this image on the night of January 8, and saw that the protostar outburst appears to be looking back at them (and seems to be none too happy about it).
Look out Grumpy Cat, there’s a new face on the internet, and it is not amused!
Protostar “emoticon” imaged by the Gemini Near Infrared Spectrograph (GNIRS)
