January 23, 2026
The same gravity that holds galaxies together and keeps planets in their orbits also held you to the Earth on the day you were born.
Planetary Nebula Abell 7
Birthday · January 23, 2026
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APOD published January 23, 2026. Credit: Martin Pugh. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Very faint planetary nebula Abell 7 is about 1,800 light-years distant. It lies just south of Orion in planet Earth's skies toward the constellation Lepus, The Hare. Posing with scattered Milky Way stars, its generally simple spherical shape about 8 light-years in diameter is revealed in this deep telescopic image. The beautiful and complex shapes seen within the cosmic cloud are visually enhanced by the use of long exposures and narrowband filters that capture emission from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. Otherwise Abell 7 would be much too faint to be appreciated by eye. A planetary nebula represents a very brief final phase in stellar evolution that our own Sun will experience 5 billion years hence, as the nebula's central, once sun-like star shrugs off its outer layers. Abell 7 itself is estimated to be 20,000 years old. But its central star, seen here as a fading white dwarf, is some 10 billion years old.
Image credit: Martin Pugh