The beautiful hourglass-shaped nebula Sharpless 2-106 shines with brilliant colors in this new image from the Gemini North telescope.

Giant star S106IR lies near the waist of the hourglass. Astronomers estimate the star could be up to 15 times more massive than our sun. The winds the star sends ripping through space appear to have generated the nebula's distinctive shape. Scientists believe that as material accretes in a disk around the hot star, perpendicular outflow jets send gas and dust streaming out at speeds of up to 125 miles per second.

The new data from Gemini North is considerably better than previous images, such as the one at the right.

The nebula is part of a catalog published by Stewart Sharpless in 1959. It's about 2 light-years long and half a light-year wide. It's located about 2,000 light years away in the direction of the Constellation Cygnus.

The image was captured using four narrow-band filters that have been tuned to see hydrogen as well as ionized helium, sulfur and oxygen. When combined in the top composite, helium is violent, sulfur blue, oxygen green and hydrogen red.

Images: 1. Gemini Observatory/AURA

2. Digitized Sky Survey/SuperCOSMOS

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