At the center of the image is a bright white star with four prominent diffraction spikes. The star is surrounded by clumpy red nebulosity. A more translucent, red finger-shaped cloud of material points upward to the star's upper right. Hubble Space The black background of space is sprinkled with tiny red and white stars.

Symbiotic Star Mira HM Sge

A Hubble Space Telescope image of the symbiotic star Mira HM Sge. Located 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Sagitta, it consists of a red giant and a white dwarf companion. The stars are too close together to be resolved by Hubble. Material bleeds off the red giant and falls onto the dwarf, making it extremely bright. This system first flared up as a nova in 1975. The red nebulosity is evidence of the stellar wind. The nebula is about one-quarter light-year across.

Credits: NASA, ESA, Ravi Sankrit (STScI), Steven Goldman (STScI); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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Image CreditNASA, ESA, Ravi Sankrit (STScI), Steven Goldman (STScI); Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
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