by Edward Herrick-Gleason
Today we experience the unalloyed joys of apophenia!
If, like me, you’re about to ask, “Who is she,” please know that apophenia is not a lady, but is a term referring to the human tendency to perceive a meaningful pattern within random or unrelated shapes. For instance, when I was a wee lad, a friend and I reclined on the lawn and gazed up at the clouds. “I see a castle in that one,” I said. My friend replied, “Hmm….it actually looks more like the hemagglutinin structure within the alphainfluenzavirus.” (If you’re growing up in a college town, brace yourself.)
Apophenia is believed to have developed far back in our history, during the time when most humans were primarily concerned with seeking nourishment while avoiding predators. Many predators and prey animals were -and still are- adept at camouflage. Consequently, our ancestors became keenly aware of their environments and cultivated the skill of perceiving familiar shapes such as hungry beasts or tasty rodents in all sorts of niches and crannies. Even though all we modern humans have to do to acquire food now is travel to the local market with an offering of an arm and a leg, we’ve still retained this apophenistic instinct.
So, tell us, can you see Godzilla in the image below?
Do you see the two red eyes toward the top? Or, perhaps the vague outline of a head. Perhaps you can see the nebulous body toward the center or the grasping hand at the image’s lower left?
If you see the monster, be not alarmed. This image is taken from GLIMPSE: the Galactic Legacy Infrared Mid-Plane Survey Extraordinaire. GLIMPSE consists of two million images of the Milky Way Galaxy captured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. The aim of this project was to produce a comprehensive survey of the galaxy in infrared light. Although the survey was completed in 2014, some of the images, including the one above, have been recently reprocessed and released to the public.
Godzilla’s “hand” is actually a giant molecular cloud designated as W33. Located 7,800 light years from Earth in the constellation Sagittarius, W33 spans 33 light years and is a prodigious producer of highly massive stars. The survey found 14 highly massive stars which formed within the last seven million years. Also, a 15-solar mass star is also currently forming within this region. Godzilla is a monster star maker!
But, no worries, this monster is quite far away and, provided that one strays far clear of the energetic stellar cauldrons, quite harmless.
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