The Heart Nebula's shape is driven by supermassive stars in its core, with the blue colors produced by ionized oxygen and sulfur. The image comes courtesy of Paul Macklin, ...

This is a fairly bright nebula, discovered nearly 240 years ago by astronomer William Herschel. Because of its brilliant colors, the Heart Nebula is an attractive target for amateur astronomers.

The Heart Nebula, also cataloged as IC 1805, is a magnitude 6.5 emission nebula just under 5° east-southeast of magnitude 3.4 Epsilon (ε) Cassiopeiae. It’s best viewed with a larger ...