celestial diamond ring
Celestial diamond ring 1,500 light years from Earth ESO

The universe appears to have proposed to the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope with a huge celestial diamond ring.

The planetary nebula Abell 33, which is 1,500 light years from Earth, formed a perfectly round gas cloud, which scientists said was an extremely uncommon event.

In images captured by ESO, the gas cloud appears with an exceptionally bright star on its rim, making it look like a diamond ring.

The alignment happened entirely by chance, with the star, HD 83535, appearing in just the right spot.

HD 83535 is extremely bright, far more luminous than our Sun. For this reason, it emits enough ultraviolet light to make the bubble of atmosphere glow, creating the rare and beautiful image.

Most stars end their lives as white dwarfs, which are very small and hot cosmic bodies that cool over billions of years.

Planetary nebula are created at the final phase of the lives of white dwarf stars. They throw their atmospheres into space and create colourful glowing gas clouds around small star relics.