NASA has released an image of the double star LL (AFGL 3068) in the constellation Pegasus, which has led users to question whether the object in the photo is a galaxy or a nebula. This star system is located 3,000 light years away and was discovered by the Hubble Telescope in 2010.
It may appear that the object in the picture is very similar to a spiral galaxy. However, as the astronomer and popularizer of science Phil Plate said, a larger star, in the process of transforming into a red giant, began to eject matter into space, which created a cloud of gas and dust that was practically impervious to light around the system. The rotation of the second star swirled this matter into spiraling stripes that can be seen in the image. Plait gave the analogy of spiraling water through a rotating lawn spray. Each time it makes a revolution, the star swirls the streams of the solar wind, which creates a new revolution. There are 5 of them in the system, from which scientists concluded when this process began - about 4 thousand years ago.
Although we should not have seen this structure, since the light of the stars is absorbed by the gas and dust cloud, according to scientists, the light of the entire Galaxy falls on it, creating a kind of "illumination".