NASA Honors Prince by Tweeting Photo of Purple Nebula

The Crab Nebula — The famous Crab Nebula, as seen by the Hubble and Herschel space telescopes. NASA tweeted out this photo on April 21, 2016, in honor of the musician Prince, who died that day at the age of 57.

(Image credit: ESA/Herschel/PACS/MESS Key Programme Supernova Remnant Team; NASA, ESA and Allison Loll/Jeff Hester (Arizona State University))

NASA paid its respects to Prince with a gorgeous space image that recalled the late musician's most famous album, Purple Rain.

"A purple nebula, in honor of Prince, who passed away today," NASA officials tweeted Thursday (April 21) along with the photo, a composite view of the Crab Nebula that combines imagery from the agency's iconic Hubble Space Telescope and the European Space Agency's Herschel Space Observatory.

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Michael was a science writer for the Idaho National Laboratory and has been an intern at Wired.com, The Salinas Californian newspaper, and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. He has also worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.