The 'dazzling' necklace in space

At 12 trillion miles wide, the colorful Necklace Nebula is some serious space bling

Best Opinion:  Space.com, io9

The image: NASA has just released a photograph that’s sure to have astronomy-minded divas around the world swooning: A glittering "necklace" that’s 12 trillion miles wide. The celestial phenomenon, a glowing cloud made up of gas and dust, is called a nebula. This particular nebula — appropriately named the Necklace Nebula — was created after two stars began to orbit around one another. When the larger star expanded and engulfed the smaller star, the larger one began rotating so fast that it spun off glowing gas from around its equator, producing a "dazzling" circular nebula. (See the image, below and at right.)

The reaction: "Talk about bling!" says Space.com. In the photo, taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, the two orbiting stars are shown as one bright dot in the center of the necklace. Hydrogen gas shimmers blue, while oxygen shows up as a green glow, and nitrogen sparkles in red. But don’t expect this necklace to show up at Tiffany’s anytime soon — it’s located in the constellation Sagitta some 15,000 light years away. "Still... that's one expensive-looking nebula," says io9.