Manatee Nebula: Sea Cow in Space!

Photo: NRAO/AUI/NSF, K. Golap, M. Goss, NASA's Wide Field Survey Explorer

Photo: Tracy Colson

Holy (Space) Cow! Forget the Space Whale, astronomers have spotted something way cooler: the Manatee nebula!

When scientists took a new image of the W50 nebula in the constellation Aquila, a remnant of a supernova 10,000 years ago, someone at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory remarked that it looks like a manatee floating on its back.

The name stuck, and the W50 nebula is being renamed during a ceremony today at the Florida Manatee Festival in Crystal River, Fla.: Link

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I don't think this would be street legal in the US, I think at least in most states windshield and proper bumpers are required (bumpers I know vary, not sure about the windshield - I actually think those wheel wells would be an issue some places too, though that's rarely enforced). Kind of surprised he could get away with it in the UK.

Cute though :)

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