Over the years, NASA has worked hard to capture stunning images of stars and constellations while exploring infinite space. In a recent post shared on Instagram, which is approximately 15,000 light-years away from Earth.
The Instagram post captioned, “Happy Jewel Day” has garnered over 97k likes. It shows stunning visuals of the “Necklace Nebula.” Its name comes from the fact that it resembles a necklace with shiny diamonds. NASA described its formation by explaining, “One of the aging stars expanded and engulfed its smaller companion, but the smaller star continued to orbit inside its larger companion. This increased the bloated giant’s rotation rate until large parts of it spun outwards into space, and the escaping ring of debris formed the Necklace Nebula, with particularly dense clumps of gas forming the bright ‘diamonds’ around the ring.”
For a better understanding of the image, the space agency has a description note for the star. The note points out a small, bright green region of gas in the center, surrounded by a ring of glowing cosmic material. The dense clumps of gas resemble diamonds, contributing to the nebula’s enchanting appearance whereas the rest of the image shows black space with a few bright stars and a couple of small regions of dark red gas.
This star has been captured by NASA’s Hubble telescope. The space agency has further added that this special telescope had an image of the ‘Necklace Nebula’, but this new image was processed with advanced techniques for a clear and enhanced view of this intriguing object. This planetary nebula is about 15,000 light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow).
For starters, the Hubble Space Telescope is a large astronomical observatory that was launched on April 24, 1990, and since its introduction, it has provided us with unique images of stars. Even after 31 years, Hubble is still dedicated to capturing spectacular cosmic images. Since its launch, it has captured several spectacular events in space. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.
NASA’s Instagram post on Necklace Nebula has been widely appreciated by viewers. Most users have expressed their awe at the stunning beauty of the star. They described it as “amazing” and “‘beautiful.” Giving it a poetic twist, one user () commented, “Cosmic giant lost her bracelet in the abyss.” wrote: “It’s cosmos’s eyes.” shared: ”No words for this, simply amazing.”