Two stars carve egg-shaped nebula photo of the day Feb. 24, 2026

two black hots in the center surrounded by a dusty orange glowing egg-shaped cloud of gas and dust. — Two ageing stars in the binary system AFGL 4106 sculpt a glowing, egg-shaped nebula as they approach the end of their lives. (Image credit: ESO/G. Tomassini et al.)

Astronomers have captured a spectacular scene of two ageing stars sculpting a cloud of gas and dust, forming an uneven glowing nebula, as they near the end of their lives.

What is it?

At the center of the image are two dark dots, a pair of massive stars orbiting each other in a binary system. Like many stars in our galaxy, they were born as a duo. Now they are nearing the end of their lives and shedding vast amounts of gas and dust into space.

A binary star system consists of two gravitationally bound stars orbiting a shared center of mass called a barycenter. In fact, most stars are not solitary like our sun, as scientists estimate up to 85% of all stars exist in binary systems or systems with three or more stars.

The stars appear black because their intense brightness saturated the detector. To reveal the faint surrounding material, astronomers used the SPHERE instrument on the VLT, which is specifically designed to handle extreme contrasts in light and to correct for the blurring effects of Earth's atmosphere.

Why is it amazing?

Instead of expanding out in a perfect sphere, the gas and dust appear warped and shifted into an almost egg-shaped cloud. The distortion is likely caused by the gravitational influence of the companion star, providing clear evidence that stellar partnerships can dramatically reshape how stars die.

These findings were recently published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics

Article Sources

Characterising the post-red supergiant binary system AFGL 4106 and its complex nebula with SPHERE/VLT G. Tomassini, E. Lagadec, I. El Mellah, R. D. Oudmaijer, A. Chiavassa, M. N’Diaye, P. de Laverny, N. Nardetto and A. Matter A&A, 706 (2026) A5 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202557705

Daisy Dobrijevic joined Space.com in February 2022 having previously worked for our sister publication All About Space magazine as a staff writer. Before joining us, Daisy completed an editorial internship with the BBC Sky at Night Magazine and worked at the National Space Centre in Leicester, U.K., where she enjoyed communicating space science to the public. In 2021, Daisy completed a PhD in plant physiology and also holds a Master's in Environmental Science, she is currently based in Nottingham, U.K. Daisy is passionate about all things space, with a penchant for solar activity and space weather. She has a strong interest in astrotourism and loves nothing more than a good northern lights chase!

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