Fried Egg Nebula Photo and Video

Fried Egg Nebula Photo and Video

Fried egg nebula is a massive yellow hypergiant star surrounded by a dusty double shell which was captured on a very large telescope by The European Southern Observatory.

The best image of the cosmic Fried Egg Nebula, the predecessor of the “Running Chicken” was captured by the European telescope which is considered the rarest classes of stars in our universe. It was called “Fried Egg Nebula” by astronomers because the cosmic scene resembles a sunny side up fried egg.

The European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope, at the Paranal Observatory in Chile, spotted the monster star, which is called a yellow hypergiant. The star is located about 13,000 light-years away from Earth, but is the closest yellow hypergiant found to date.

The hypergiant star dubbed by ESO scientists as the Fried Egg Nebula is so large it has a width that is about 1,000 times larger than our sun. In fact, if the Fried Egg nebula were placed at the center of our solar system, the Earth would be positioned deep within the star itself. The orbit of the planet Jupiter would be just above the star’s surface.

The extreme activity of yellow hypergiants shows that the star will likely die an explosive death, potentially as one of the next supernova explosions to occur in our galaxy. Supernovas blast often spur the creation of newborn stars, the agency said.

Photo: AFP Photo/Gemini Observatory