NASA Celebrated Valentine's Day by Releasing Heart-shaped Features Captured in Space

On the eve of Valentine's Day, NASA released a breathtaking image of a young star cluster with heart-shaped features captured by its most powerful space telescope,Chandra, as a gift for all its space enthusiasts.

The latest image captured by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory reveals an infant star cluster dubbed NGC 346 highlighting a heart-shaped cloud of about 8 million degree Celsius gas in the centre.

Using radio, optical and ultraviolet telescope data, the scientists say the hot cloud is about 100 light years across and is a remnant of a supernova explosion that occurred some thousands of years ago. According to NASA experts, the predecessor was a companion of a giant young star because of which there is a bright X ray source seen at the top center of the image. The young star, HD 5980, is a massive young star and has been seen undergoing certain eruptions over the last decade.  

A Valentine's Day Mystery! @chandraxray sees a heart in the darkness: https://t.co/hZQ0Vk2bBN #NASALove  pic.twitter.com/tVb99ON6SI

- NASA (@NASA) February 14, 2014

Apart from this stunning image of the star cluster, the space agency celebrated the day by releasing heart-shaped images of geological clouds or gas clouds found on the Martian surface. They released a collage of images that were captured over the last three years on the Red Planet. The space agency tweeted saying:

#NASALove from the Red Planet: Mars is red, so don't be blue. Hearts abound from us to you: https://t.co/jJoui2qS6I  pic.twitter.com/munaJOG0PM - NASA (@NASA) February 14, 2014

Adding to this, NASA's Expedition 37 crew member Karen Nyberg also tweeted a stunning image of a thick cloud cover for all the space lovers. The picture of the clouds was taken when the crew was over the Atlantic.

A Valentine from Earth. pic.twitter.com/7FEIIddAJB - Karen L. Nyberg (@AstroKarenN) February 14, 2014

Another image of the Earth shot from the International Space Station released by Nyberg.

Looking through photos I took of Earth from ISS. Missing views like this from July 6. I was so fortunate! pic.twitter.com/n0lShmTmm6 - Karen L. Nyberg (@AstroKarenN) January 7, 2014

Earthlings have received a very special gift this valentine from the space agency.