Posts Tagged ‘red giant’
Spirograph Eye
Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Glowing with many colors, the planetary nebula called the Spirograph Nebula, shows the last stage of a star’s life. After running out of hydrogen fuel, the star at the center grew to a huge red giant. Then the star shed its outer layers, creating a bubble in space. Eventually the small hot core left behind will become a white dwarf.
Butterfly Wings
Credit: Massimo Stiavelli (STScI), and NASA
This butterfly-wing shaped nebula is larger than the solar system. NGC 2346 shows the last gasp of a binary star system. The two stars at the center of the nebula are so close that they orbit each other every 16 days. They are so close together that even the huge and powerful Hubble Space Telescope cannot tell them apart. Astronomers believe that one of the stars grew to become a red giant and actually swallowed its partner. Then the two became even closer together before parts of the stars were thrown off into space. At first this star stuff made of gas and dust moved out in a bubble. But scientists think that one of the stars developed a fast solar wind causing the butterfly wings to form.
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