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Space

See the Minecraft nebula that Twitter found

By Lauren Hitchings

28 May 2014

Âé¶¹´«Ã½. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

(Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

“CAPTURE & name your own NASA Spitzer space image! It’s easier than you might think.” , the operators of the invited people to roam around a gigantic mosaic of the Milky Way.

Composed of more than 2 million infrared images taken by the telescope over the last decade, the complete panoramic image can be viewed online using NASA’s GLIMPSE360 tool. Released in March, it allows people to explore more than half of our galaxy’s stars.

Twitter user Kevin Gill (@kevinmgill) discovered the nebula pictured . “I was interested in the awesomeness of the data and the high-resolution views into the depths of space that no one has ever seen before,” says Gill. “I had found two other interesting things, but this one struck me as the funniest, looking like a Minecraft creeper just staring us down.”

The image has been likened to a fish, a raccoon and most notably a “cute coyote’s head”. This has landed the once-unknown region a nickname: the Coyote Head Nebula. It’s like a Rorschach ink-blot test, say the team. What do you see?

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