Happy Thanksgiving! I have a quick question for you guys, lurkers and commenters alike. Could you please leave me a comment and tell me what this is? I’d really appreciate y’all even clicking through from Facebook or your reader to do this — I need a cross-section of folks telling me what they think this might be.
It should only take a second — I just want a word or two, not a dissertation.
I’ll tell you why on Monday. And thanks. To all of you, for all that you’ve given to me over the years. It’s been wonderful, and I give thanks for you every day.
Toddler Planet is written by 
Toddler Planet 
Clearly it’s a space hourglass.
Two pieces of space “stuff”, err, kissing? Or perhaps a space bra?
Sorry, I’m apparently feeling (seeing) a bit irreverent tonight. Whatever it is it’s beautiful, I’d love to see more of the photographer’s work.
It’s a star explosion? Or some sort of new nebula?
Did you discover it?
Snort. If only. (But thanks!)
Aurora’s guess: Crab Nebula
Mine (cold): Hmmm…it’s collimated, with a donut in the middle, a Pulsar? Geez I feel REALLY rusty. 😛 😦 GRB seems unlikely, but maybe…?
Off to investigate what it really is. 😉
some sort of breast scan?
my husband thinks “it is a celestial thing taken from the hubble telescope”..:)
This should put an end to all the guessing: it’s an intergalactic butterfly.
If I had to really think hard….space cloud of gasses?
Whatever it is, it is truly beautiful.
I thought it was some kind of space explosion.
Space fish kissing.
hubby (who looks at the hubble images just for fun) says butterfly nebula
I say its a nebula too but am quite intrigued by why its is being seemingly constricted by the swirl of gas in the middle
Tom said either Nova or neutron star giving off radiation.
I thought star explosion.
My mother thought meteor collision.
I hope you’ll tweet the answer!
Its beautiful.
This is a star explosion..
this picture taken by Hubble ithink so. not sure..
Best Regards,
Andy
online Doctor Chat
nebula
Butterfly Nebula, and it’s beautiful.
Butterfly nebula. I think we had this very picture hung in our stairway for a while in our old place.
It’s the Bow Tie Pasta Nebula. I think Kirk ran into it in an episode of the Original Series. And then ate it with some Romulan marinara.
At first I thought it was a cross-section of a mammogram. Then I thought it might be space trash hitting the earth’s atmosphere.
Space Cloud Butterfly, clearly.
A solar system
a nebula
Oh, excuse me! Does anyone have a handkerchief?
it’s a butterfly nebula.
It’s an awesome mystery of beauty. Yeah, sure, nebula, but isn’t your first reaction “Wow! How amazing!”? (And next my scientific little brain says “I wonder why/how/…”) 🙂 Thanks for posting the pic, Susan – and making us all think a little bit!
Space angel 🙂
Bill Nye’s Bow Tie Nebula?
Absolutely beautiful is what it is! Breathtaking. Very much butterfly looking.
Solar flair
I like Butterfly Nebula. Maybe lepidoptera if you want to keep it science-y. It’s lovely, though, really.
I feel like it’s something in space (hence the stars) and without looking at what people said above me and knowing next to nothing about space…two black holes meeting? I know that doesn’t make sense but what if two black holes meeting created an enormous…white hole. Can you tell that I was an English major?
It looks beautiful. I love looking at creation, even the farthest corners of the universe contain amazing things! Others obviously know the answer, but I would have said that it looks like you are looking up through the tail of a comet.
collision of two “somethings” of similar proportions?
Beautiful indeed. If you were in my field, I’d say a cell in mitosis, with the spindles pulling on the centromeres. But since this seems to be from space… something collapsing or dividing. Actually I love the space butterfly theory from above.
Well, I should have answered before I read everyone else’s answers. Now my nova/nebula (whatever the difference is between the two) just sounds all copy-catty. So I’ll be different and say a forming black hole.
Cosmic kissing.
Gorgeous.
I’m totally un-sciency so I am guessing some sort of gas formation taken by the Hubble. Maybe the beginning of a universe?? (sorry – that’s all you get from an English major.)
A psychological ink-blot test for the scientifically-inclined (or not)?
Two stars kissing?
It’s either a scene from 2012 or a beautiful space butterfly. Either way, we can only watch.
Cosmic mitosis.
The path to heaven? Or at least some place mystical.
I wasn’t even looking and I stumbled upon this picture elsewhere online today, unfortunately it didn’t tell me what it was, but it’s definitely from space. However it makes me think of breasts, I was probably nursing when I first saw the picture!
It’s stellar! Loving the posts!
a speeding galaxy!
Either a planetary nebula or a young stellar object.
Beauty. A beginning and an ending. Perspective.
I know it’s something in space… I was going to say birth of a star, but then I realized it was only going out in 2 directions basically… so I have no idea! 🙂
@ Sarah Says: hilarious! Now that you say it, its quite clear thats what it is!
two star-fish, kissing
Candy wrapper up close.
A cosmic kiss.
I thought butterfly, like so many others.
I had my mammo two weeks ago and I can totally see that being a funky, beautified shot of the squished girls merged together.
Yay for getting a mammogram! Whoo-hoo!
I have been lurking forever – but thought I would chime in. Totally looks like some scan of boobies…..”kissing”……….can’t wait to see what it actually is!
I am really excited to hear the answer-there are so many possibilities.
Butterfly Nebula, taken by Hubble.
it is a beautiful picture of a star nebula. I hope you tell us where and when and by whom/what it was taken.
Could this be some type of storm between 2 galaxies? I will be interested to find out what it is.
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It’s that asteroid from “Armageddon” exploding.