15 Mind-Blowing Pictures Of Space

This jellyfish-like planetary nebula, with the punchy title of NGC 6153, is all that is left of a star that once shone in the constellation of Scorpius. When all of its fuel was used up, it fired its outer layers out into space and they were ionized by the intense ultraviolet light emitted by the hot, bright core.

This nebula is 4,000 lightyears away from Earth, meaning that we're seeing it as it was 4,000 years ago, which is about the time the human race was entering into the Bronze Age.

What makes it really fascinating to the scientists, however, is the huge amounts of elements contained in its cloud-like form. Measurements have shown that this nebula contains large quantities of neon, argon, oxygen, carbon and chlorine as well as five times the amount of nitrogen in our sun. It is the ejection of these rich materials that form the basis for creating everything else in the universe.