Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
The Hubble Space Telescope captures a “cosmic couple” as a star named Hen 2-427 and the surrounding nebula M1-67 make for a marvelous photograph. The pair can be found in the constellation Sagittarius.
A nebula acts as a nursery for star formation, composed of hot gases and dust. The ingredients of a nebula generally come from the death of another star. So even in death, the legacy of a star is passed on to the next generation.
M1-67 is approximately 10,000 years old; a newborn in the cosmic timeline of our universe. To put it into perspective, the Earth is nearly 4.5 billion years old, and the human race is about 200,000 years old. This nebula formed during the time of our distant ancestors.
Source: European Space Agency, NASA