Last summer, the National Science Foundation named a previously undiscovered species of fish after the late reggae icon Bob Marley. Now researchers have looked skyward and found the remnant of a star in the shape of an endangered manatee.
The gas cloud, which the National Radio Astronomy Observatory calls the Manatee Nebula, is 18,000 light years away and impossible to view with a common telescope. It took 10,000 years to assume the shape of a manatee, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services says.
There also are star fragments named after eagles, crabs, and pelicans, the agency said. Which might cause a Toledoan to ask: What about walleye?