If Big Brother really is watching us, it’s from the Engraved Hourglass Nebula - a planetary nebula in the southern constellation Musca that looks freakishly like a giant eye in the sky. Due to its distinctive appearance, this cloud of cosmic gas is nicknamed the Eye of God - a moniker it shares with the Helix Nebula.

Discovered by Annia Jump Cannon and Margaret W. Mayall, the nebula’s shape is thought to be caused by speedy stellar wind expanding in the dense equator of the nebula, creating a denser shape there than at the poles. However, astronomers have yet to unravel some of the remarkable characteristics of the Hourglass Nebula, such as the unusual positioning of the progenitor star away from the centre.