Glowing ominously green and yellow in this picture, the nebula W5 - nicknamed (seriously) the Soul Nebula - peers into your soul with its black eye sockets filled with pinprick stars...

But really it's a vast cloud of gas furiously churning out stars. The winds of subatomic particles and fierce light from those newborn stars carve out cavities in the gas, leaving what look like eye sockets and a nasal bone in a huge green skull.

I have to say... it looks a lot like the very creepy aliens called "The Silence" from Doctor Who.

This image was taken by astronomer César Cantú, who has dozens of other stunning astronomical photos on his site... but none quite so creepy.

Image credit: César Cantú

Original blog post: Heart and Skull nebula