Message #238789

[Mercury]

Hourglass Nebula

Image courtesy IAC

The hourglass-shaped nebula Sharpless 2-106 glows in a picture released by NASA on November 7 and taken by the Gran Telescopio CANARIAS in Spain's Canary Islands.

Located about 2,000 light-years away, this star-forming region is illuminated by a very young star—about a hundred thousand years old—whose mass is equivalent to that of 15 suns.

("'Soccer Ball' Nebula Discovered by Amateur Astronomer.")

Published November 18, 2011