Witch's head to God's eye: 12 of the spookiest objects in the universe

A malevolent, screaming skull face. A witch cackling in profile. An all-seeing eye, gazing red and furious from the cosmic depths.

Space can be as terrifying as it is beautiful. From nebulas — vast regions of gas and dust illuminated by starlight and sculpted by stellar radiation — to distant galaxies beckoning us into the void with their spiral arms and monstrous black holes, here are 12 of our favorite spooky images from around the universe.

1. Ghostly 'Pillars of Creation'

Ghostly pillars of dust in the Eagle Nebula — (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI)

Like phantoms gliding through the sky, the clouds of dust that make up the iconic “Pillars of Creation” billow and ooze in this eerie James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) image. The Pillars are a prominent feature of the Eagle Nebula, located about 6,500 light-years from Earth. These spires of dust are a buffet of star-forming material — and you can spot some of the area’s youngest stars glowing in blue light near the tips of the pillars. The ghostly hue in this image comes from a combination of JWST’s Mid-Infrared Instrument and Near-Infrared Camera, which reveal wavelengths of light normally invisible to the human eye.

2. Witch Head Nebula

As the name implies, this reflection nebula associated with the star Rigel looks suspiciously like a fairytale crone. Formally known as IC 2118 in the constellation Orion, the Witch Head Nebula glows primarily by light reflected from the star. — Witch head nebula. (Image credit: NASA/STScI Digitized Sky Survey/Noel Carboni)

The Witch Head Nebula, formally known as IC 2118, is located in the constellation Orion about 900 light-years from Earth. Illuminated by the giant blue star Rigel, this enchanted blue nebula looks like the silhouette of a cackling space crone in the midst of some cosmic incantations.

3. Skull and Crossbones Nebula

Image of the Skull and Crossbones Nebula. — (Image credit: ESO)

Despite its decrepit appearance, NGC 2467, better known as the Skull and Crossbones Nebula, is a stellar nursery bursting with baby star formation. Two large star clusters gaze out of the skull's "eye sockets," giving the nebula its forbidding look. Keeping with the high-seas theme, the Skull and Crossbones nebula lives in the constellation Puppis, or "the poop deck," near the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way.

4. Eye of God Nebula

This infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the Helix nebula, a cosmic starlet often photographed by amateur astronomers for its vivid colours and resemblance to a giant eye. An optimised and digitally enhanced version of a NASA/ ESA image. — Eye of God nebula. (Image credit: NASA/ESA)

Staring like the unblinking eye of God (or the eye of Sauron, depending on your literary taste) the Helix Nebula is an infamously spooky object that has captivated astronomers for 200 years. Located 700 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius, the nebula is the result of a dead star showering infrared light onto a coccoon of dust.

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5. The Phantom Galaxy

The James Webb Space Telescope's view of the heart of the Phantom Galaxy (M74). It is in a spiral pattern. — (Image credit: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-JWST Team; ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar. Acknowledgement: J. Schmidt)

Galaxy M74, also called the Phantom Galaxy, looks like an otherworldly void in this haunting JWST image. In fact, it is a spiral galaxy much like our own Milky Way — and just happens to be in Earth’s line of sight, making it a popular target for astronomers. JWST’s keen eye shows how intricate filaments of gas lace together to form grand spiral arms, beckoning viewers toward the seething star cluster at the galaxy’s center.

6. Little Ghost Nebula

The Little ghost nebula's main round structure is about a light-year across and the glow from ionized oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms are colored blue, green, and red respectively. — Little ghost nebula. (Image credit: Hubble Heritage Team, NASA)

Wispy and faint, The Little Ghost Nebula (NGC 6369) is a monument to stellar death. Illuminated by the dying spirit of a white dwarf star (the smoldering husk of a once-mighty star that has ceased its nucelar fusion), the fire at the center of this nebula is slowly dimming, and will one day vanish entirely.

7. Hand of God Nebula

Nicknamed the "Hand of God," this object is called a pulsar wind nebula and is powered by the leftover, dense core of a star that blew up in a supernova explosion. In this image, X-ray light seen by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with energy ranges of 0.5 to 2 kiloelectron volts (keV) and 2 to 4 keV is shown in red and green, respectively, while X-ray light detected by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) in the higher-energy range of 7 to 25 keV is blue. — Hand of God nebula. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

The ominous Hand of God Nebula (PSR B1509-58) is a window into the stellar afterlife. After exploding in a violent supernova, the star at the center of this nebula collapsed into a pulsar, or a compact, ultrafast-spinning stellar corpse that constantly whips a wind of particles into the gas and dust around it.

8. Tarantula Nebula

In this mosaic image stretching 340 light-years across, Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) displays the Tarantula Nebula star-forming region in a new light, including tens of thousands of never-before-seen young stars that were previously shrouded in cosmic dust. The most active region appears to sparkle with massive young stars, appearing pale blue. — Tarantula nebula. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Webb ERO Production Team)

Creepy and spindly, the Tarantula Nebula (30 Doradus) is the brightest and biggest region of star formation in the group of galaxies closest to the Milky Way. If you find its nickname unfitting, look a little deeper. A mother tarantula's brood can contain thousands of eggs; this nebula's nursery contains hundreds of thousands of young stars.

9. Skull Nebula (NGC 246)

The Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. FOV is approximately 2.5x3 degrees. — Skull nebula. (Image credit: John Corban & the ESA/ESO/NASA Photoshop FITS LiberatoR)

Located 1,600 light-years away, the Skull Nebula (NGC 246) is a popular target for astronomers, and not just on Halloween. Within the spooky red skull is a somewhat rare triple star system, made of two closely-bound stars and a third star orbiting the others from afar.

10. Black Widow Nebula

In this Spitzer Space Telescope image, the two opposing bubbles are being formed in opposite directions by the powerful outflows from massive groups of forming stars. The baby stars can be seen as specks of yellow where the two bubbles overlap. — Black widow nebula. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Wisc.)

The Black Widow Nebula creeps through space with an eerie symmetry. The nebula's double-lobed appearance comes from a group of stars at its center, producing intense outflows of radiation in opposite directions at the same time.

11. Cosmic Keyhole (NGC 1999)

This peculiar portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases NGC 1999, a reflection nebula in the constellation Orion. NGC 1999 is around 1350 light-years from Earth and lies near to the Orion Nebula, the closest region of massive star formation to Earth. NGC 1999 itself is a relic of recent star formation — it is composed of detritus left over from the formation of a newborn star. — Cosmic keyhole. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, K. Noll)

The Cosmic Keyhole (NGC 1999) is perhaps the scariest nebula of all. At its center sits a young star surrounded by an inexplicably empty hole; how the vast rift in space was created, and what could lurk beyond it, remains a mystery.

12. Pac-Man Nebula

NASA Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer observed the star-forming cloud NGC 281 in the constellation of Cassiopeia as it appears to be chomping through the cosmos, earning it the nickname the Pac-man nebula. — Pac-man nebula. (Image credit: NASA/JPL)

The Pac-Man Nebula (NGC 281) glows like a cosmic jack-o-lantern 6,500 light-years from Earth. Located high above the crowded plane of the Milky Way, this nebula sits in plain view for curious astronomers, showing off its smoldering face like a pumpkin on a porch.

Editor's note: This article was updated on Oct. 30, 2024, to include new images.