When a star reaches the end of its life and dies, it can be a dramatic, destructive event, releasing a burst of heat and light – but it can also create beautiful new forms. The latest image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the aftermath of a star’s death, revealing a striking object called a planetary nebula.
The name “planetary nebulae” is a bit of a misnomer, because these objects have nothing to do with planets. They were named that way by early astronomers who saw round objects through their telescopes and mistook them for distant planets. In fact, they are clouds of dust and gas created by dying stars.
This particular planetary nebula, called Kohoutek 4-55, is located in the Milky Way about 4,600 light years away. The different colors in the image represent different elements released when the star dies.
NASA explains: " A planetary nebula is the final spectacular display in the life of a giant star. As a red giant runs out of fuel and sheds its last layers of gas, its dense core continues to collapse, triggering a final burst of nuclear fusion. The exposed core reaches extreme temperatures, emitting ultraviolet light that ionizes the atoms in the gas cloud, causing them to glow brightly. In this image, red and orange represent nitrogen, green represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen ."
Kohoutek 4-55's unique structure is quite unusual, with its many layers appearing as colored rings. This phase is short-lived compared to the lifespan of a star - within a few tens of thousands of years, the glowing gas clouds will dissipate, leaving only the core of the dead star as a white dwarf.
The image also marks an emotional moment for Hubble, as it is the last image to use data from one of its instruments – the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). The instrument was replaced by the more modern Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in 2009, but scientists have continued to mine data from the old instrument for the past 16 years – including the last data taken before its replacement, which has now been processed using the most advanced techniques to create this stunning image.
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