MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula
Image Credit: R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL), WFPC2, HST, NASA Explanation: The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped
planetary nebula. With its
nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like
star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading
white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the
Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of
planetary nebulae, including
the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (
nitrogen-red,
hydrogen-green, and
oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the
hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the HST images has revealed
surprising details of the
nebula ejection process that are
helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the
complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas.
Link
here.
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