The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured this vivid image of the startlingly symmetrical nebula Hen 2-437.
This Hubble image shows the young planetary nebula Hen 2-437. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.
Hen 2-437, otherwise known as Min 1-91 and LEDA 2815473, is a young bipolar planetary nebula located in the direction of the northern constellation Vulpecula.
This remarkable object was first spotted in 1946 by the German-American astronomer Rudolph Minkowski, who later also discovered the famous Twin Jet Nebula (M2-9).
Hen 2-437 was added to a catalogue of planetary nebula over two decades later by the American astronomer, space scientist, and NASA astronaut Prof. Karl Gordon Henize.
Planetary nebulae such as this one form when an aging low-mass star reaches the final stages of life.
The star swells to become a red giant, before casting off its gaseous outer layers into space.
The star itself then slowly shrinks to form a white dwarf star, while the expelled gas is slowly compressed and pushed outwards by stellar winds.
This image of Hen 2-437 includes optical and infrared observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
Astronomer Judy Schmidt submitted a version of the image to the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition.
