Blowing Bubbles
Featured on
March 13, 2012 Bubbles and jets of gas and dust erupt in the Cat's Eye Nebula, the last gasp of a dying star. The star is expelling its outer layers into space, forming a beautiful structure known as a planetary nebula. Thousands of years from now, the nebula will fade, leaving only the star's hot, dense, dead core, known as a white dwarf. This view, from Hubble Space Telescope, also shows light from the star illuminating shells of gas and dust that were expelled into space before the star entered the planetary nebula phase. [NASA/ESA]
