Fish Nebula

It’s amazing just how many astronomical objects resemble and are named after animals. The night sky is filled with them. We have monkeys, horses, jellyfish, dolphins, eagles, snakes, sharks, whales, and butterflies, just to name a few. Like children spotting the fleeting shapes of animals in summer clouds, astronomers see familiar objects in the gas and dust of deep space. But these too are impermanent as cosmic forces disperse the great nebulae like a summer breeze.

The fish nebula is part of the heart nebula located about 6000 miles away in the constellation Cassiopeia.