Star Trek, the well-loved television series turned movie franchise, is currently celebrating its 50 years of existence. The TV series of Star Trek aired for the first time in September 8, 1966 and since then, have awed and inspired.
If Kirk and Spock are real, it looks like they have been spotted by NASA going boldly to explore where no one has gone before. Yes, the heavens gave all Trekkies something to be delighted about on the anniversary of the show.
The Spitzer Telescope of NASA was able to capture images of what look like the two versions of the U.S.S. Enterprise from the historic Star Trek.
To make it simpler and easier for everyone to see, NASA released the images with and without the superimposed lines (see below).
On the right most image, one can see that there are two Enterprise images present. The left image being the original U.S.S. Enterprise or NCC-1701 of Captain James T. Kirk and Spock. While the right image is Enterprise-D or NCC-1701-D of Jean-Luc Picard from "Next Generation" Star Trek.
Real Trekkies maybe will no longer need the lines NASA provided and can perceive the Enterprise ships just by looking at the left image alone.
Of course, these images are merely products of imaginations of recognizing objects while looking at the heavens. This has been a known phenomenon called Pareidoila. The most common example would be the constellation we try so hard to see at night.
As explained by NASA, the truth and scientific explanation of the images of the perceived Enterprise ships is simple. In visible light, these are actually two regions of star formations behind a haze of dust.
NASA's very powerful telescope, Spitzer, has the capability of looking deep into this dust clouds. This is the very reason why the telescope was able to capture the images of what appears to the Enterprise ships.
