Claim:   Photograph taken by the Hubble Telescope shows the 'Eye of God.'

Status:   True.

Example:   [Collected on the Internet, 2003]

Eye of God — you really must see this!

See attachment . . . it is a picture taken by NASA with the Hubble telescope. They are referring to it as the "Eye of God". I thought it was beautiful and worth sharing.

Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Origins:  This is a real photograph of the Helix Nebula, although it's technically not a single photograph but rather a composite image formed from several photographs taken by NASA's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope and a land-based telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, Arizona.

This image was NASA's "Astronomy Picture of the Day" for 10 May 2003. The picture's "Eye of God" appellation appears to have been a title coined by an admirer of the photo due to the nebula's resemblance to a human eye, not something designated by NASA.