Comments on: Angry nebula is really REALLY angry

By: reidh

reidh — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:09:47 +0000

These are very very cool. I submit that had the “ancients” known of these pareidoliae in the heavens, in the same locations in the night sky, where they had already ascribed anthropomorphic imagery, they would have all gone starkers, no?

By: KimS

KimS — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:13:42 +0000

Heh. I’m usually very quick to see things like that, but I can’t see anything in the really angry nebula at all. Odd.

By: tracer

tracer — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 03:07:53 +0000

I agree with Jan et al.

Clearly, this is Dr. Manhattan from _Watchmen_ flipping us off!

By: Borat

Borat — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:54:00 +0000

I don’t see a face in any of those pics.

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 19:51:10 +0000

I see a blue sock monkey set on fire.

By: Ken B

Ken B — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 16:51:20 +0000

Chris Martin:

It looks like Fozzie Bear to me!

Actually, if I concentrate on the gold/brown/orange colored area, rather than the blue, I was going to say I thought it was Rowlf (the piano-playing dog), rather than Fozzie Bear. (Maybe the blue puppy isn’t asking for a hug, but rather running in terror from Rowlf?)

Isn’t pareidolia fun?

By: Bipedal Tetrapod

Bipedal Tetrapod — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:12:26 +0000

I think Phil has programmed himself to find pareidolia wherever he looks.
Try as I might I can’t see an angry face. Best I can do is ET with an ear of corn balanced on his head. Sorry.

By: Eric

Eric — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:06:27 +0000

I’m in the crowd seeing the nebula giving us the finger. Which is amusing. The blue grabs my attention far more – after really looking, I kinda-sorta see a somewhat face in the red… which then gives me a blue middle finger.

By: IW

IW — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 11:40:07 +0000

“…there’s no way you can look at this image and not see a really angry screaming face…”

I see a Smurf. In a really bad accident. Mwa-ha-haaa!

By: Tim

Tim — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 05:23:49 +0000

Looks like the nebulla is giving us the finger for looking at it the wrong way.

By: David

David — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 03:01:55 +0000

It looks like the monster from Forbidden Planet.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 00:21:27 +0000

7. Gonçalo Aguiar Says: Nice picture!
Off-topic: Phill can you explain your readers what is wrong with Phobos-Grunt mission? They say that it’s not gona make it into Mars, is that true??? What a bummer…

I second that, Phil. We want Grunt!
Also, I didn’t see anything about the crewed Soyuz launch a couple of days ago. It was somewhat notable in light of the worries about that failed Soyuz cargo mission and possible manufacturing problems.

Still, I don’t want to snark too much. It’s your blog, and you’re the Bad Astronomer, not the Ragin’ Rocketeer

[shameless_plug] Click on my name for a link to a Soyuz update. [/shameless_plug]

By: Thomas Siefert

Thomas Siefert — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 22:13:36 +0000

I see the heat and pain, a day after a good vindaloo, visualised….

By: Christine P.

Christine P. — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:48:44 +0000

Try tilting your head 45 degrees to the right. As Joseph G says, you then can see a face facing to the right, screaming at the blob. YMMV

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:16:57 +0000

@3 SleepyGrump: Pity a “terrifying nebula” costume would be rather tricky to construct!

I’d love to take that challenge, if I had the money to throw at it! I’m picturing a thick suit of extremely fine fluff, with a couple of smoke machines inside, and some colored lighting. As for terrifying, well, I’d be scared of anyone wearing that suit

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:12:13 +0000

I didn’t see it until I mentally shifted the face so that it was facing to the right. At first I was looking for sort of a left-facing… face. Didn’t really see it then.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:10:38 +0000

@1 stjobe: That is quite clearly a dragon in the left-hand side of the picture facing right, breathing a ball of blue fire to the right.
Or maybe I’ve just been playing to much Skyrim lately

Agh, you lucky bastard My 360 just RRODed on me. I guess it had a good run, it’s one of the original models from 5 years ago. Still, I was so looking forward to Skyrim, and then BAM!
Sheesh. If a car manufacturer (or even PC manufacturer) put out a product with the failure rate of the Xbox, they’d have the SEC on their asses. The solder just breaks? In a machine that never gets moved? Seriously??
*rant gripe rant*

And now I’m between jobs and can’t justify buying a new one. Grr. Of course, I’d probably be a lot less likely to get much job hunting done if I were playing Skyrim, so maybe the RROD saved my ass

By: Chris Martin

Chris Martin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 18:29:27 +0000

It looks like Fozzie Bear to me!

By: Robin Byron

Robin Byron — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:53:41 +0000

Ever the ocean oriented person, I see a galactic blue ringed octopus.

OT-PS: Thanks for the reply on /., Phil. Oooo, and I even scored first (ever) post. (yeah, alias fuego451)

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:48:15 +0000

If thats what you see as angry I would hate to see you angry lol

By: melbassoon

melbassoon — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 17:10:18 +0000

I saw the middle finger right away. I looked for the face. . . It’s a one-eyed, one-horned, flying purple (well, blue here) people eater!

By: Bette Noir

Bette Noir — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:46:30 +0000

All I see is a friendly dog.

By: Other Paul

Other Paul — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:42:53 +0000

I’m with gib, john, and ken b for the general posture and extent of the shape – except that it’s a blue bunny. It’s the floppy ears y’see.

Oh, and he’s on a skateboard. Did I mention the skateboard?

By: DrFlimmer

DrFlimmer — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:42:06 +0000

If it’s an angry face, then it’s an angry face of a Klingon!

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 16:36:52 +0000

I am definitely in the flaming-blue-hand-flipping-the-bird camp