An astrophotographer has captured the first ever picture of a newly discovered nebula which was spotted by a group of cosmos-loving friends.

Bray Falls, 24, photographed the never-before seen view of the hidden gem, which went undetected for 134 years, despite shining above the andromeda galaxy.

The sighting of the bright blue arc has been described as ‘the discovery of the century’ after evading astronomers in one of the most viewed areas of outer space.

Bray said: “It is a totally new nebula and I feel like it’s going to be hard to top. But you never know what else is out there.”

The nebula was found by renowned astronomers Marcel Drechsler, Yann Sainty and XavIer Strottner who noticed that they were receiving strange results in data gathered from the andromeda galaxy.

They shared their results with astronomers Sean Walker, Stefan Kimeswenger and Robert Fesen, who helped to confirm the anomaly.

To record the sighting, the group enlisted the help of Bray, who spent 180 hours shooting images of the nebula, which is thought to be comprised of oxygen gas.

He captured the images from his telescope at the Sierra Remote Observatory in Fresno, California, before stacking the images together to create the final effect.

Bray, from Austin, Texas, USA, said: “We created the image by stacking thousands of shots, which took around 180 days to capture.

“The to combine the photos it took a further two weeks, and there was a back and forth constantly with the team.

“By stacking the shots it reduces the visual noise of space, and you get the clearest view of this new discovery which is really exciting.”

Though the team, who live in the USA, Germany and France have never met, they have really bonded over this fascinating discovery.

Bray added: “The others are so renowned this has been like a mentorship with me as their student. I am very lucky that I was in touch with them to help with this amazing project.

“There has been a great reaction to the discovery and the photograph, though some people online have said they think it’s fake, that it’s created by AI. But a lot of different telescopes have seen the same thing, so it has been a bit of fun debunking the doubters.”

The origins of the new nebula are unknown and is currently an active topic of research, however one theory is that the anomaly is generated by the halo of the Milky Way.

Photographers have been taking photographs of the andromeda galaxy, which sits 2.5 million light years away from earth for 134 years, and the nebula has never been seen or captured before.

Andromeda is a spiral galaxy and is the nearest to the Milky Way. It is 10.01 billion years old.

A nebula refers to a distinct and luminescent medium in space, and is comprised of giant clouds of dust or gas.

ENDS