13-Feb-2007: A brand new image taken with Hubbles Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 shows the planetary nebula NGC 2440 - the chaotic structure of the demise of a star.
This image, just taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows the colourful “last hurrah” of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star’s remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the centre. Our Sun will eventually burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years.
Zomming on NGC 2440
Credit: ESA/Hubble (M. Kornmesser & L. L. Christensen)
http://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/heic0703a.html
Rating: User: CauchySchwarz 2007-02-28T19:41:17.607Z
Tags:
star | white | nebulae | hubble |