Astrophotographer Ogetay Kayali has captured a nebula resembling a jellyfish — or possibly a brain, depending on your perspective — shining 5,000 light-years from Earth near the bright star Propus, which represents one foot of a mythological twin represented in the constellation Gemini.The nebula IC 443 is, in reality, a vast supernova remnant composed of stellar debris cast off in the cataclysmic death of an enormous star. The stellar body that spawned the remnant lingers on as a fast-spinning neutron star, or pulsar, which was detected in observations made by NASA's Chandra Space Telescope back in 2015.Kayali's nebula view highlights the expanding structure of IC 443's luminous shell, which is visible to the upper right of the image, glowing alongside dense filaments of interstellar dust and gas punctuated by the multicolored light of stars in the foreground and background of the nebula. "This image captures the intricate shock fronts where stellar debris collides with surrounding interstellar gas, causing hydrogen to glow in deep crimson while faint filaments trace the blast wave's turbulent history," Kayali told Space.com in an email.
