Hubble captures stunning stellar duo in Orion Nebula 1,450 light-years away

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning new image of the bright variable star V 372 Orionis and a companion star.

The NASA and European Space Agency telescope snapped the stars, which lie in the Orion Nebula, a region of stellar formation located around 1,450 light-years away from Earth. 

The companion star is seen in the upper left corner. 

V 372 Orionis is a particular type of variable star known as an Orion Variable. 

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The bright variable star V 372 Orionis takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
(ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Bally, M. Robberto)

Patchy gas and dust of the Orion Nebulae are seen throughout the image. Orion Variables are commonly associated with diffuse nebulae. 

The image from the team overlays data from two of the telescope’s instruments — the Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field Camera 3. 

The data at infrared and visible wavelengths were layered to reveal details of the area. 

An astronaut aboard the space shuttle Atlantis captured this image of the Hubble Space Telescope May 19, 2009.
(NASA)

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Notably, the diffraction spikes that surround the brightest stars of the image were formed when an intense point source of light interacted with the four vanes inside Hubble that support the telescope’s secondary mirror. 

In this April 13, 2017, photo provided by NASA, technicians lift the mirror of the James Webb Space Telescope using a crane at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
(Laura Betz/NASA via AP, File)

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Comparatively, those of the James Webb Space Telescope are six-pointed due to its hexagonal mirror segments and 3-legged support structure for the secondary mirror.