Those astronomers were just checking out the cosmos one day when they stumbled upon a bizarre human hand formation reaching out to grasp our consciousnesses. They captured it in color, and it offered it up to us as a peculiar specimen. What we’re observing here is a pulsar, known to us as PSR B1509-58. The image depicts an X-ray nebula, and it measures a modest 150 light years around the waist.

According to NASA, “The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand.”

Those spectral fingers are brought to you by “energizing knots of material in a neighboring gas cloud,” according to NASA.  You might be wondering what the point of a cosmic hand is; why, it’s simply really: It’s a metapresent reminder that every nebulous thing that you’ve written off as impossible is just within your swirling, electromagnetic grasp.