The Dark Energy Camera captured a stunning image of “God’s Hand,” a cometary globule 1,300 light-years from Earth in the Puppis constellation. Cometary globules are unique because they have extended tails, like those seen on comets — but that’s the only cometlike thing about them. Astronomers still don’t know how cometary globules come to exist in such distinctive structures. The new image of the glowing red hand-like feature showcases CG 4, one of many cometary globules found across the Milky Way galaxy. The Gum Nebula is believed to contain 31 cometary globules in addition to CG 4.

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Persons: Blanco, Cometary, Bok globule, it’s, globules Organizations: CNN, Energy, Cerro Tololo Inter, American, UK Schmidt Telescope, Astronomers Locations: Chile, Australia