This aptly named ‘Necklace Nebula’ located 15,000 light-years away was captured by NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope in the constellation Sagitta (the Arrow). Classified as PN G054.203.4, this nebula consists of a pair of tightly orbiting Sun-like stars where one of them expanded and engulfed its smaller companion around 10,000 years ago, creating something astronomers call a “common envelope.”
Despite being engulfed, the smaller star continued to orbit inside its larger companion, thus increasing the giant’s rotation rate until large parts of it spun outwards into space. It is this escaping ring of debris that formed the Necklace Nebula as we see it here, with particularly dense clumps of gas forming the bright “diamonds”.
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The pair of stars which created the Necklace Nebula remain so close together – separated by only several million miles – that they appear as a single bright dot in the center of this image. Despite their close encounter, the stars are still furiously whirling around each other, completing an orbit in just over a day,” said the NASA Hubble Mission Team.
