About 7.500 light-years from Earth, there is a stunning cosmic formation whose silhouette resembles a huge human heart. It is IC 1805, known as the Heart Nebula, located in the constellation Cassiopeia.
Its photographs look like they were taken from a science fiction movie, but this structure really exists and has been documented by astronomers for decades.
Its intense reddish glow comes mainly from hydrogen, a gas that emits light when energized by young, extremely hot stars.
Inside it is Melotte 15, a cluster of newly formed stars whose radiation and powerful stellar winds help sculpt the clouds of gas and dust.
NASA has shared various images of this region, captured using long-exposure techniques and special filters that reveal details invisible to the naked eye.
Although its shape resembles a heart, what we are actually looking at is a gigantic region where stars are born.
A visual coincidence that shows the universe can create shapes as surprising as those we imagine here on Earth.