Tag: NGC 7009
Football Ornament
by CritterKeeper on Dec.17, 2009, under Eyes in the Sky
Credit: NASA/ESA, Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Jason Alexander (University of Washington), Arsen Hajian (U.S. Naval Observatory), Yervant Terzian (Cornell University), Mario Perinotto (University of Florence, Italy), Patrizio Patriarchi (Arcetri Observatory, Italy)
Here is a new ornament for the Christmas tree. NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, glows with holiday light in this image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 7009 is a planetary nebula. When a Sun-like star reaches the end of its life and has used up all of its hydrogen fuel, it plumps up to become a red giant. Eventually, however, the star throws off its outer layers into space, creating a bubble around a hot white dwarf. These bubbles are called planetary nebula because in early telescopes they had a round shape like planets. The bubble will keep on expanding and facing into space over time. The white dwarf, just a hot cinder, will also cool into a dark, warm lump of ash.
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