Posts Tagged ‘planetary nebula’
Eight-Burst
07 July 2011
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Credit: The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA)
Shaped like the number eight, astronomers in the southern hemisphere call this the Eight-Burst or the Southern Ring Nebula. NGC 3132 is a planetary nebula. The name “planetary nebula” refers to the shape of the nebula. Astronomers in the 17th and 18th centuries found many objects in the night sky that resembled planets. But the expanding shells of gas and dust are all that is left of a star that has reached the end of its life.
Glowing Waves Make 4
01 July 2011
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Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
Glowing waves of material ejected from a dying star trace out the number four in this image of IC 4634 from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Filaments of Medusa
02 February 2011
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Credit: H. Schweiker/NOAO/AURA/NSF and T. A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage and NOAO/AURA/NSF
Braided filaments of glowing gas and dust snake around the dim Medusa Nebula in this image from National Optical Astronomy Observatory, or NAOA.
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