You might be wondering, "How did she come up with 'The Question Mark in Space' as a blog name?" It is a seemingly random name, but there's most definitely a reason behind it. Luckily, you have a space nerd to tell you all about it.
This blog's name came from a discovery made by the James Webb Space Telescope released by NASA in July 2023. Through images the sent back by JWST, researchers found a formation in space resembling the shape of a question mark! There's been speculation of aliens, a glitch in the Matrix, and the possibility of the Doctor from Doctor Who reaching out to us (my personal favorite), but scientists aren't really sure what this cosmic punctuation is.
We've captured images containing question mark-like shapes in the universe before, with the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2008, the telescope snapped an image of 2 galaxies merging in a vaguely question mark-like shape. In 2009, another image was taken of 4 galaxies which created an optical illusion to look like a question mark.
According to Matt Caplan of Illinois State University, “The very first thing you can rule out is that it’s a star in the Milky Way.” From its color, the formation is likely occurring billions of light years from Earth. Various scientists have lots of theories, ranging from a "right place, right time" optical illusion to a distorted spiral galaxy merging with another.
Overall, finding punctuation in space is pretty epic, and seemed like the perfect name for a space blog! After all, the goal is to find answers and discover new and exciting things :)
See you soon!
Katie 🌈
Resource for scientific info & image: Smithsonian Magazine - Margaret Osborne
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