NEBULOUS NEIGHBOURS
© NASA, ESA and STScI
Just outside the Milky Way in one of its satellite galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud, are these two nebulae. Floating around 163,000 light years away from Earth, the larger red nebula is called NGC 2014, and its smaller blue sidekick is called NGC 2020. These nebulae are the birthplace of massive stars, including rare Wolf-Rayet stars, which are around 15 times the size of our Sun. Near the centre of NGC 2020 you’ll notice the bright Wolf-Rayet star HD 269748, which generates this blue bubble. This image, which has been given the name ‘Cosmic Reef’ because of NGC 2014’s coral reef-like appearance, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.