Call the Doctor! Nasa spots Dr Who's crack in the universe in the middle of the Milky Way



For followers of the current season of Dr Who, it is more than a little disconcerting.

For this thick black snake-like object in space bears an uncanny resemblance to the crack in the universe which has haunted Matt Smith and his companion, Karen Gillan.

Luckily for us, this striking image is the core of a thick, sooty cloud large enough to swallow dozens of solar systems. In fact, astronomers say its ‘belly’ may be harbouring stars in the process of forming.

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows what astronomers are referring to as a 'snake'....

...but it bears an uncanny resemblance to the crack in space and time from this season of Dr Who

'The snake is an ideal place to hunt for massive forming stars as they have not had time to heat up and destroy the cloud they are born in,' said Dr. Sean Carey of NASA's Spitzer Science Center.

Spitzer was able to spot the sinuous cloud using its heat-seeking infrared vision. The object is hiding in the dusty plane of our Milky Way galaxy, invisible to optical telescopes.

Because its heat, or infrared light, can sneak through the dust, it first showed up in infrared images from past missions.

The cloud is so thick with dust that if you were to somehow transport yourself into the middle of it, you would see nothing but black, not even a star in the sky.

Spitzer's new view of the snake provides the best look at what lurks inside. The yellow and orange spots located on and around it are massive stars just beginning to take shape.



The bright red spot located on its belly is a monstrous stellar embryo, about 20 to 50 times the mass of our sun.