In the Battlestar: Galactica universe, nebulas are a nifty spot to hide from the Cylons that are plotting to kill humanity. There's just one problem with the hypothesis, though: These diffuse areas of gas in our universe are actually very faint, even if you get close up. Probably too faint for a hiding spot.

NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory just wrapped up its first systematic survey of planetary nebulae within our solar neighborhood, and the results are absolutely beautiful.

At first glance, these brilliant photos might appear to be shaky images of a distant nebula, but that's just a clever illusion. Photographer Fabian Oefner actually created these images using fiberglass lamps, Photoshop, and a bit of ingenuity.

This nebula is called the Trifid Nebula, so named for how the dark band of gas separates it into three parts. But this image of the three-lobed nebula reveals another threesome: the three stages of early star formation.