'Fried Egg' Nebula Cracks Unusual Hypergiant Star (Video)

The Fried Egg Nebula has cracked open a rare hypergiant star. A telescope in Europe recently captured the best image of the unusual cosmic phenomenon. The reason for the name is because the nebula resembles a fried egg with a yellow, yoke-like center, and a milky white around it.

The yellow hypergiant which makes up the Fried Egg Nebula is the closest to Earth. At just 13,000 light years away, the monster is called IRAS 17163-3907. How exciting that The Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory allowed astronomers to make this unique find so close to their home planet.

Can you believe that the hypergiant at the center of the Fried Egg Nebula is 1,000 times larger than the Sun, and it shines 500,000 times brighter? That is incredible. If you looked at it in comparison to this solar system, Earth would actually be very deep within the huge yellow star. Jupiter would be the first planet not actually inside the star.

Another interesting thing about IRAS 17163-3907 is that it could very well be the next Supernova in the sky, because it is likely to die an explosive death. Unfortunately this is not a phenomenon that you will be around to see. The video below zooms in on the amazing Fried Egg Nebula.