A 10,000-year-old conflict between two stars formed the Necklace Nebula

By Georgina Torbet Published April 28, 2022

The interaction of two doomed stars has created this spectacular ring adorned with bright clumps of gas – a diamond necklace of cosmic proportions. Fittingly known as the “Necklace Nebula,” this planetary nebula is located 15,000 light-years away from Earth in the small, dim constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow). — The interaction of two doomed stars has created this spectacular ring adorned with bright clumps of gas – a diamond necklace of cosmic proportions. Fittingly known as the “Necklace Nebula,” this planetary nebula is located 15,000 light-years away from Earth in the small, dim constellation of Sagitta (the Arrow). ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll

Around 10,000 years ago, two stars that had been orbited each other peacefully came into a sticky conflict when the larger of the two came too close to its companion and ballooned outward, engulfing the other. The resulting mess of a bloated star spun so quickly that it threw off its outer layers, forming a bubble of gas which expanded out into space, eventually stretching over two light-years wide.

Recommended Videos

This dramatic event formed the beautiful Necklace Nebula, also known as PN G054.2-03.4, located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta (the Arrow). This nebula was recently captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in the image shown above. The ring of gas is dotted with clumps of gas that shine brightly like jewelry, for which the nebula was given its name. The gas glows as it is illuminated with ultraviolet light produced by nearby stars, giving the nebula its distinctive appearance.

Even after their dramatic conflict, the two stars at the heart of the nebula continue to orbit each other closely. They are just a few million miles apart and orbit each other in just over a day. They are so close together that they appear as a single dot in the image.

This is not the first time that Hubble has imaged this particular nebula. It also captured the image below in 2011, when the nebula had only recently been discovered. Hubble used its Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, to take this image.

A previous image of the Necklace Nebula, taken by Hubble in 2011. — A previous image of the Necklace Nebula, taken by Hubble in 2011. NASA , ESA , and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI /AURA )

Since 2011, Hubble’s hardware has remained largely the same, but software has improved, such as image processing technology. This allowed the creation of a crisper image of the target which shows more detail than the version from 10 years prior. The latest image is a composite, including images taken by the same Wide Field Camera 3.

Georgina Torbet

Space Writer

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Topics

Space

Hubble observes weird star system with three off-kilter, planet-forming disks

This illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope images of gas and dust discs encircling the young star TW Hydrae. We have an oblique view of three concentric rings of dust and gas. At the centre is the bright white glow of the central star. The reddish-coloured rings are inclined to each other and are therefore casting dark shadows across the outermost ring.

Planets form from large disks of dust and gas that collect around their host stars. Billions of years ago, our solar system would have looked like a single point of bright light coming from the sun, with a disk of matter swirling around it that eventually clumped into planets. To learn about how our solar system formed, it's helpful to look at other systems that are currently going through this process -- such as TW Hydrae, a system located 200 light-years away and turned face-on toward us, making it the perfect place to observe planetary formation.

But there's something odd about the TW Hydrae system. In 2017, astronomers first noticed a strange shadow that was visible on the disk of dust and gas surrounding the star. While such shadows are typically from a planet formed within the disk, in this case the shadow's shape and movement suggested it was actually from a second disk, located within the first disk and tilted at a different angle. Now, astronomers think they have spotted evidence of a third disk, with all three stacked up and creating a complex pattern of shadows.

Space

Unique black hole is trailed by 200,000 light-year-long tail of stars

This is an artist's impression of a runaway supermassive black hole that was ejected from its host galaxy as a result of a tussle between it and two other black holes. As the black hole plows through intergalactic space it compresses tenuous gas in front to it. This precipitates the birth of hot blue stars. This illustration is based on Hubble Space Telescope observations of a 200,000-light-year-long contrail of stars behind an escaping black hole.

Black holes might have a reputation as terrifying monsters, devouring all they come into contact with -- but they can be a force of creation too, feeding the formation of new stars. Researchers using data from the Hubble Space Telescope recently spotted an unexpectedly huge trail of stars forming in the wake of a rogue black hole.

While most very large black holes, called supermassive black holes, sit at the center of galaxies, occasionally these enormous beasts can be found wandering alone in the depths of space. That's the case with the recently discovered black hole with the mass of 20 million suns, which is streaking through the sky at tremendous speed. This likely began with two galaxies merging, each with its own supermassive black hole, which formed a binary system. Then a third galaxy got too close, and in the chaos of a three-way merger one of the black holes was kicked out and sent zipping off into space -- so fast that if it were in our solar system, it would travel from the Earth to the moon in 14 minutes.

Space

The Tarantula Nebula glows brightly in this week’s Hubble image

A snapshot of the Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is featured in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The Tarantula Nebula is a large star-forming region of ionized hydrogen gas that lies 161,000 light-years from Earth in the Large Magellanic Cloud, and its turbulent clouds of gas and dust appear to swirl between the region’s bright, newly formed stars.

The Hubble Space Telescope continues to capture gorgeous views of space objects thst are shared every week, the most recent of which shows a beautiful nebula.

This week's target is the Tarantula Nebula, technically known as 30 Doradus. Located over 160,000 light-years away in a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud, this huge cloud of dust is exceptionally bright and is one of the busiest areas of star formation in nearby space. As new stars are born, they give off radiation that ionizes the hydrogen atoms around them, making the cloud of gas glow brightly.