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Related: About this forumChile-Based Telescope Captures Star’s Death
Chile-Based Telescope Captures Stars Death
21:33 10/04/2013
April 10 (By Karin Zeitvogel for RIA Novosti) - Scientists at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) have released what they call an unusually good picture of a star 3,300 light years from Earth taken by the ESOs Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, that is putting on a show of color and light as it dies.
What youre looking at is an old star that has blown off some of its atmosphere into space, and is now surrounded by a big bubble of glowing gas, Richard Hook, a spokesman for the ESO, told RIA Novosti.
The glowing green cloud of gas is called a planetary nebula, and is part of the lifecycle of all stars that are the size of the sun or larger.
The sun will do this in a few billion years, Hook said.
More:
http://en.rian.ru/science/20130410/180563718.html
longship
(40,416 posts)Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)New Photo Reveals 'Ghostly' Green Nebula in Deep Space
The new image, released April 10 by the European Southern Observatory, shows the planetary nebula IC 1295 like it has never been seen before. This picture, which ESO scientists dubbed "ghostly," marks the first time the nebula has been imaged such unprecedented detail.
"It has the unusual feature of being surrounded by multiple shells that make it resemble a microorganism seen under a microscope, with many layers corresponding to the membranes of a cell," officials from the European Southern Observatory wrote in a statement.
ESO offiials released a video tour of the nebula as well.
The formation of a planetary nebula marks one of the final chapters in the life of a star like the Earth's sun. Once the yellow star depletes its fuel, it collapses in on itself creating huge shells of gas like the green ones that appear in the new photo.
More:
http://mashable.com/2013/04/10/ghostly-green-nebula/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=feedburner&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29
Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)Is it gravitational lensing doing this?
I would imagine the star being at the center of the nebula.