NASA shares incredible picture of nebula that shimmers like a fireworks display

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) often delights space enthusiasts by sharing stunning images of our cosmos. Recently, the American space agency released another mesmerising space photo on its official Instagram handle. Captured via NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the image is of an incredible nebula located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina. This extraordinary image portrays a collection of stars that “shimmer like a fireworks display.”

NASA penned an exhaustive caption alongside this stunning image. “This collection of stars that shimmer like a fireworks display was captured by @nasahubble in August and December 2009. The nebula, located 20,000 light-years away in the constellation Carina, contains a central cluster of huge, hot stars, and is surrounded by clouds of interstellar gas and dust - the raw material for new star formation. Its relative closeness to Earth makes it an excellent lab for studying such distant and momentous events,” NASA wrote in the caption of the post.

Social media users marvelled over NASA’s post in the comment section. One user wrote, “This is what is see when I close my eyes.” Another space nerd wondered if a cloud of dark matter could affect or change the behaviour of a star cluster.

According to NASA, star clusters provide important clues as to how massive stars were born in the early, distant universe. NASA explained the importance of these star clusters and revealed, “Astronomers also use massive clusters to study distant starbursts that occur when galaxies collide, igniting a flurry of star formation."

The level of detail and richness in NASA’s space photos has exponentially increased in the last few years. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is the cornerstone of our gaze into the ever-expanding universe. Whether it is the celestial backyard of our solar system or incredibly distant galaxies that were created shortly after the Big Bang, the US space agency regularly treats budding astronomers with astonishing space photos.