January 4, 1996
Somewhere in the sky tonight, a star is being born in a cloud of gas and dust, beginning a journey that will last billions of years.
Symbiotic Star System R Aquarii
Birthday · January 4, 1996
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APOD published January 4, 1996. Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Sometimes stars work together to create a spectacular display. Such is the case with the binary star system R Aquarii - a "symbiotic" star system. Here two stars, a variable giant and a white dwarf companion - create both a nebula and a jet. Light from the giant star and the unusually shaped nebula are visible in the above photograph. The two visible shells in the nebula likely resulted from two separate outburst events. Much about symbiotic star systems remains unknown.
Image credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board