photo #8737187

Hubble observed a glittering piece of cosmic "jewelry" located 15,000 light-years away. Aptly nicknamed the Necklace Nebula, it was created by a pair of aging, tightly orbiting Sun-like stars. 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. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll.