September — The Dragon's Egg nebula in visible light

This image, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope hosted at ESO’s Paranal Observatory, shows the beautiful nebula NGC 6164/6165, also known as the Dragon’s Egg. The nebula is a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a pair of stars called HD 148937. 

There were most likely three stars in the HD 148937 system until two of them clashed and merged, creating a new, larger and magnetic star. This violent event also created the spectacular nebula that now surrounds the remaining stars. 

The original image can be downloaded in high resolution on https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2407a/