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 and may help resolve the outstanding mystery of the variety of complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulae.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: MyCn18 - Hourglass Nebula - planetary nebula - Planetarnaya tumannost' Publikacii so slovami: MyCn18 - Hourglass Nebula - planetary nebula - Planetarnaya tumannost'
Sm. takzhe: M27: eto ne kometa Dzhons-Emberson-1 Kol'ca vokrug tumannosti Kol'co HFG1 i Eibell 6: planetarnye tumannosti NGC 2440: kokon novogo belogo karlika MyCn 18: planetarnaya tumannost' Pesochnye Chasy Tumannost' Kol'co ot teleskopa "Dzheims Vebb" Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>