demise is a topic that cheer dread and revere in most people . When it come tostars , however , we positively wonder at it . The colors , radiation diagram and giant displays of shimmer cosmic dust are universally accept to be nothing less than beautiful . Hubble has once again shown us that the creation is a incessantly changing , violent place to be : the remnant of a star ’s volatile death , manifestly freeze down in time , have been photographed and beamed back to our pale , blue dot . locate in the configuration of Norma , PK 329 - 02.2 , have a go at it more unforgettably as Menzel 2 , is a planetary nebula list after the astronomer Donald Menzel , who first laid eye on the astral remains way back in 1922 .
Planetary nebulae are , deceivingly , nothing to do with planet ; they are the last consequence of a star ’s death . If a star is equivalent to a mass ofeightof our own sun or more , then it will likely reach the end of its biography with asupernova explosion , which always shortly outshine the light of an intact galaxy .
Planetary nebulae , which are formed during the prolong demise of star with a much down in the mouth hatful , are far more refined affairs . When the star can no longer burn its fuel through the nuclear fusion of H , the immense gravitational field around the star begin to compress its sum . This increase the temperature of most star cores 10 - fold , savage out the outer , cool layers of the star into deep space . This exposes the searing core of the star , which blast out ultraviolet radiation , energetically turn on the force out outer shell , have it to appear to glow .
So what you ’re ensure here in this striking Hubble image is just that : the dying throe of a star , which astronomers intend is the bright of the two stars at the center of the double .
This immense swarm of starring dust , rich in big constituent including carbon paper , N and oxygen , will one day in the very upstage futurity be part of another sensation organization , or even a planet , very different or perhaps very like to our own .
icon citation : NASA
