The Universe Today : The Dying Star of the Dumbbell Nebula
This is a picture taken over night of the Dumbbell Nebula. This is a planetary nebula consisting of a hot blue white star which is surrounded by a cloud of expanding gas.
As usual, we have processed the image to bring out more details. If you look in the center of the nebula you can see what we believe to be the star which used to be a red giant but has now collapsed into a white dwarf star. You can see the hydrogen gas (red) which was ejected from the red giant when it collapsed into the white dwarf. The hydrogen gas appears to be coming from the left and right hand sides of the white dwarf.
The image below was processed by sydneystargazers.com
Dumbbell Nebula 9th April 2011 (Click to Enlarge)
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