NASA Honors Prince With Breathtaking Purple Nebula

Even the stars are honoring Prince’s sudden death. 

Prince Rogers Nelson passed away on April 21 of yet-unknown causes. 

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On the same day, in honor of the world-renowned musician, the NASA tweeted an image of a purple nebula. 

A purple nebula, in honor of Prince, who passed away today. https://t.co/7buFWWExMw pic.twitter.com/ONQDwSQwVa

— NASA (@NASA) April 21, 2016

Prince has been affiliated with the color since his signature song, “Purple Rain,” was released in 1984. 

Depicted is the Crab nebula, the corpse of a star that exploded in a supernova observed by Chinese astronomers in 1054, according to NASA.

It consists of wispy clouds of gas and dust and is located about 6,500 light years away from Earth. 

NASA’s tribute tweet has been liked nearly 50,000 times and has been retweeted by over 45,000 users. 

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The image is actually a composite of pictures captured by two space observatories: The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory—currently defunct—located 930,000 miles from Earth, and NASA’s still operational Hubble Space Telescope is in orbit around the Earth. 

@NASA @hmstulta for some reason it was this tweet that brought on the tears

— her echo (@peeppeepeep) April 21, 2016