Heart Nebula, IC 1805

IC 1805, the Heart Nebula   looks, in whole, like a human heart. This heart is illuminated by light emitted by hydrogen, sulfur, and oxygen gases that is excited by uv light from the nearby open star cluster Melotte 15 in center of the heart. It is in the Hubble palette where Hydrogen is in green, Sulfur is red, and Oxygen is blue. In the center of the nebula the young stars from the open star cluster are eroding away several picturesque dust pillars with their energetic light and winds. The cluster of stars contains a few bright stars nearly 50 times the mass of our Sun, many dim stars only a fraction of the mass of our Sun, and an absent microquasar  that was expelled millions of years ago. The Heart Nebula is located about 7,500 light years away toward the constellation, the mythological Queen of Aethiopia (Cassiopeia).