Fact Sheet
Messy Star
Torrents of gas and dust rush away from a newly emerging star in this new image from Hubble Space Telescope. Because of its shape, this object is known as the Boomerang Nebula. Some unknown mechanism is causing twin streamers of gas and dust to rush away from a developing star at the center of the nebula, which is about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. In the last 1,500 years, enough gas has rushed away from the star to create a star one and a half times the mass of the Sun. This false-color image was created by combining pictures taken with several types of filters. [NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI)]
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