Rosa Rubicondior: The Universe Is Nothing Like The Description of it in The Bible 3

Labeled Version of the Image

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hong Kong/S. Zhang et al.; Radio: ATNF/CSIRO/ATCA; H-alpha: UK STFC/Royal Observatory Edinburgh; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

Chandra :: Photo Album :: MSH 15-52 :: August 20, 2025

In this, the third entry in the series, we turn to an extraordinary image of a nebula popularly known as “The Hand of God.” Like the famous Horsehead Nebula, its nickname arises simply because it happens to resemble something faintly recognisable—in this case, the outline of a human hand. Some creationists may take comfort in that name, imagining it to mean that scientists literally see the hand of God at work in the creation of the universe.

Few things could be further from the truth. The more we learn, the clearer it becomes that the universe is not the product of spells cast by a supernatural magician, as described in the Bible, but the result of natural forces acting on a scale so vast the authors of Genesis could never have conceived it.

Without modern science—and without the stunning images produced by instruments such as the James Webb Space Telescope and the Chandra X-Ray Observatory which created this composite — we too would struggle to imagine the universe as it really is. Expecting Bronze Age pastoralists to have described it accurately would be like asking a five-year-old today to look up at the night sky and provide a scientific account of the cosmos.

What we see here is just a tiny fraction of the heavens — the area covered by a single grain of rice held at arm’s length — yet, by combining electromagnetic images at different wavelengths, scientists have rendered the nebula visible in all its grandeur.

The Hand of God” Nebula – A Glimpse at Nature, Not a Deity.

Object & Origin: This cosmic “hand,” officially known as MSH 15‑52, forms around the pulsar B1509‑58 — an ultra-dense neutron star, around 12 miles wide, born from a supernova explosion. Its particle wind sculpts the surrounding nebula into a haunting hand-like shape.[1]
Astronomical Scale: The nebula spans an astonishing 150 light-years (roughly 900 trillion miles), dwarfing human imagination.[[1]]
Composite Imaging:

X-ray data from NASA’s Chandra Observatory (depicted in blue, orange, and yellow).
Radio data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array (shown in red).
Optical hydrogen light (H‑alpha) rendered in gold.
Where X-ray and radio data overlap, the nebula appears purple.[[1, [2]

Dynamic Structure & Mystery:

Intricate filaments align with magnetic fields, revealing interactions between the pulsar’s wind and surrounding supernova debris.
Certain X-ray features, such as jets and finger-like structures, are not seen in radio, suggesting energetic particles are escaping along magnetic field lines.
Even more puzzling, some edges of the X-ray emission show no radio counterpart, defying expectations.[[1, [3]

The images are announced in a paper published in The Astrophysical Journal and described in detail in a Chandra X-Ray Observatory Article.

At the center of this new image lies the pulsar B1509-58, a rapidly spinning neutron star that is only about 12 miles in diameter. This tiny object is responsible for producing an intricate nebula (called MSH 15-52) that spans over 150 light-years, or about 900 trillion miles. The nebula, which is produced by energetic particles, resembles a human hand with a palm and extended fingers pointing to the upper right in X-rays.

The collapse of a massive star created the pulsar when much of the star crashed inward once it burned through its sustainable nuclear fuel. An ensuing explosion sent the star’s outer layers outward into space as a supernova.

The pulsar spins around almost seven times every second and has a strong magnetic field, about 15 trillion times stronger than the Earth’s. The rapid rotation and strong magnetic field make B1509-58 one of the most powerful electromagnetic generators in the Galaxy, enabling it to drive an energetic wind of electrons and other particles away from the pulsar, creating the nebula.

In this new composite image, the ATCA radio data (represented in red) has been combined with X-rays from Chandra (shown in blue, orange and yellow), along with an optical image of hydrogen gas (gold). The areas of overlap between the X-ray and radio data in MSH 15-52 show as purple. The optical image shows stars in the field of view along with parts of the supernova’s debris, the supernova remnant RCW 89. A labeled version of the figure shows the main features of the image.

Radio data from ATCA now reveals complex filaments that are aligned with the directions of the nebula’s magnetic field, shown by the short, straight, white lines in a supplementary image. These filaments could result from the collision of the pulsar’s particle wind with the supernova’s debris.

By comparing the radio and X-ray data, researchers identified key differences between the sources of the two types of light. In particular, some prominent X-ray features, including the jet towards the bottom of the image and the inner parts of the three “fingers” towards the top, are not detected in radio waves. This suggests that highly energetic particles are leaking out from a shock wave — similar to a supersonic plane’s sonic boom — near the pulsar and moving along magnetic field lines to create the fingers.

The radio data also shows that RCW 89’s structure is different from typical young supernova remnants. Much of the radio emission is patchy and closely matches clumps of X-ray and optical emission. It also extends well beyond the X-ray emission. All of these characteristics support the idea that RCW 89 is colliding with a dense cloud of nearby hydrogen gas.

However, the researchers do not fully understand all that the data is showing them. One area that is perplexing is the sharp boundary of X-ray emission in the upper right of the image that seems to be the blast wave from the supernova — see the labeled feature. Supernova blast waves are usually bright in radio waves for young supernova remnants like RCW 89, so it is surprising to researchers that there is no radio signal at the X-ray boundary.

MSH 15–52 and RCW 89 show many unique features not found in other young sources. There are, however, still many open questions regarding the formation and evolution of these structures. Further work is needed to provide better understanding of the complex interplay between the pulsar wind and the supernova debris.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages the Chandra program. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's Chandra X-ray Center controls science operations from Cambridge, Massachusetts, and flight operations from Burlington, Massachusetts. Visual Description: MSH 15-52

This release features a composite image of a nebula and pulsar that strongly resembles a cosmic hand reaching for a neon red cloud.

The neon red cloud sits near the top of the image, just to our right of center. Breaks in the cloud reveal interwoven strands of gold resembling spiderwebs, or a latticework substructure. This cloud is the remains of the supernova that formed the pulsar at the heart of the image. The pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star only 12 miles in diameter, is far too small to be seen in this image, which represents a region of space over 150 light-years across.

The bottom half of the image is dominated by a massive blue hand reaching up toward the pulsar and supernova cloud. This is an intricate nebula called MSH 15-52, an energetic wind of electrons and other particles driven away from the pulsar. The resemblance to a hand is undeniable. Inside the nebula, streaks and swirls of blue range from pale to navy, evoking a medical X-ray, or the yearning hand of a giant, cosmic ghost.

The hand and nebula are set against the blackness of space, surrounded by scores of gleaming golden specks. At our lower left, a golden hydrogen gas cloud extends beyond the edges of the image. In this composite, gold represents optical data; red represents ATCA radio data; and blue, orange, and yellow represent X-ray data from Chandra. Where the blue hand of the nebula overlaps with the radio data in red, the fingers appear hazy and purple.

A new composite image shows a spectacular view of a hand-shaped nebula known as MSH 15-52 and its associated supernova remnant.
X-rays from Chandra have been combined with radio data obtained by the Australian Telescope Compact Array to reveal new structures.
At the center of this image is a pulsar, a rapidly spinning neutron star, which is responsible for creating the nebula.
This system was created when a massive star collapsed and exploded after it burned through its sustainable nuclear fuel.

"The Hand of God" Nebula seen in x-ray wavelengths.

"The Hand of God" Nebula seen in optical (hydrogen light) wavelengths

"The Hand of God" Nebula seen in radio wavelengths

Complex Filaments Aligned with the Directions of the Nebula’s Magnetic Field

(Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Hong Kong/S. Zhang et al.; Radio: ATNF/CSIRO/ATCA; H-alpha: UK STFC/Royal Observatory Edinburgh;
Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/N. Wolk

Publication:
Zhang, S.; Ng, C.-Y.; Bucciantini, N
High-resolution Radio Study of Pulsar Wind Nebula MSH 15–52 and Supernova Remnant RCW 89
The Astrophysical Journal 989(2) 221, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adf333

Abstract
We present high-resolution radio observations of the pulsar wind nebula (PWN) MSH 15–52, which is renowned for its distinctive handlike shape, and its associated supernova remnant RCW 89. Using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we obtained 3 and 6 cm radio maps with a resolution of 2″. These unveil small-scale radio features in the system and allow a direct comparison with the arcsecond-resolution X-ray images. We find that the radio emission is composed of a complex filamentary structure. In particular, there is a bar-like feature across the central pulsar B1509−58 in the inner PWN, and the radio sheath wrapping around the pulsar also appears to be made up of filaments. Some prominent X-ray features are not detected in radio, including the one-sided jet in the south and the fingerlike structures in the north. These indicate turnover of the particle distribution at low energies in these regions. For RCW 89, the radio emission well coincides with both the X-ray knots and the Hα filaments. The high polarization fraction shows that the emission is synchrotron in nature, but it extends well beyond the sharp boundary of the nonthermal X-ray emission, which is difficult to explain.

Figure 1. Chandra X-ray image of MSH 15–52 and RCW 89 in 0.5–7 keV (red), 1.2–2 keV (green), and 2–7 keV (blue) bands, made with all MSH 15–52 pointings taken between 2000 and 2020, exposure corrected and smoothed to \(\small 0\mathop{.}\limits^{\unicode{x02033}}\)6. PSR B1509−58 is marked by the red cross, and the X-ray fingers are indicated.

Zhang, S.; Ng, C.-Y.; Bucciantini, N
High-resolution Radio Study of Pulsar Wind Nebula MSH 15–52 and Supernova Remnant RCW 89
The Astrophysical Journal 989(2) 221, DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adf333

Copyright: © 2025 The authors.
Published by IOP Publishing. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

The so-called “Hand of God” nebula may look like a divine imprint, but in reality, it is the natural aftermath of a supernova, sculpted by the winds of a spinning neutron star. What faith misreads as a miracle of design is, under scientific scrutiny, revealed as the predictable result of physics on a scale far beyond human experience.

Genesis describes a flat Earth beneath a dome, with lights fixed overhead; science shows us titanic stellar explosions, pulsars, magnetic fields, and nebulae stretching across hundreds of trillions of miles. The contrast could not be sharper. This third example again exposes the gulf between myth and evidence, reminding us that the real universe is not the work of a supernatural hand but of natural forces operating across deep time and unimaginable distances. And in the next post, we will see yet another discovery that widens that gulf still further.

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