Posthuman Blues

The remarkable Red Rectangle: A Stairway to Heaven?

"Hubble's sharp pictures show that the Red Rectangle is not really rectangular, but has an X-shaped structure, that astronomers interpret as arising from outflows of gas and dust from the star in the centre. The cone-like outflows are ejected from the star in two opposing directions. In addition there are straight linking features that look like the rungs on a ladder, making the Red Rectangle look similar to a spider's web, a shape unlike that of any other known nebula in the sky. These rungs may have arisen in episodes of mass ejection from the star that occur every few hundred years and could represent a series of 'smoke rings', seen almost exactly edge-on from our vantage point."

Could this possibly be artificial? Imagine a civilization around a dying star constructing a vast "Dyson Cube" and the image of the Red Rectangle is probably quite similar to what you come up with in your mind's eye.