JPL’s Space Telescope Sees Nebulae that Resemble Star Trek’s USS Enterprise

A new infrared image from Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Spitzer Space Telescope has uncovered nebulae that resemble famed USS Enterprise ships from “Star Trek,” right in time for TV show’s 50th anniversary.

The images, which were found Thursday, show disc-like shapes that take after the original USS Enterprise, captained by James T. Kirk, and its successor the Enterprise-D, commissioned by Jean-Luc Picard. In an astronomical sense, the region pictured falls within the disk of our galaxy, according to a statement released to the media by NASA.

Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, talked to Pasadena scientists before making the show to add a level of “realness” to it, according to an interview his son Rod did with the Baltimore Sun.

“There was nothing mystical or magical about my father. He talked to people at [Jet Propulsion Laboratory] and CalTech. He asked smart questions and hired smart people,” Rod Roddenberry said to the Baltimore Sun. “That’s where [the] phaser came from.”

The formation displays two regions where star formation occurs hidden behind a haze of dust illuminated by visible light. According to the press release, the image was put together using GLIMPSE and MIPSGAL, the two biggest surveys Spitzer conducted of the Milky Way.

Though the Spitzer Space Telescope is managed from NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, its science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech, according to the media statement.

Humans have been gazing toward the cosmos since ancient times, finding and naming familiar patterns in nature, a phenomenon called pareidolia. Examples of this are constellations, “The Eye of God,” “The Man on the Moon” and other well-known nebulae named Ant, Stingray and Hourglass.

“Star Trek” first aired September 8, 1966 and went on to become one of the most popular science fiction franchises of all time, spawning 13 movies, 23 console video games and seven television series.