New images of the Butterfly Nebula and the Jewel Bug Nebula taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope are revealing information about how planetary...
A planetary nebula called the Stingray Nebula has faded precipitously over just the past 20 years, according to an analysis of the archival images from...
Astronomers using NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory have spotted a bubble of ultrahot gas at the center of a planetary nebula called IC 4593.
This composite...
Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured a beautiful image of a planetary nebula called the Skull Nebula.
This image, taken by...
Stars with a mass of less than 8 solar masses end their lives as planetary nebulae, structures of ionized gas thrown off by the star and heated by the...
Astronomers using the FORS (FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have obtained a stunning image...
Planetary nebulae, whose stars shed their layers over thousands of years, can turn into crazy whirligigs while puffing off shells and jets of hot gas....
W43A, an aged star located some 7,000 light-years away in the constellation Aquila, ejected high-speed bipolar jets less than 60 years ago, according to...
Astronomers using the Gemini South telescope on the summit of Cerro Pachon in Chile have taken a picture of CVMP 1, a planetary nebula located some 6,500...
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a spectacular image of a planetary nebula called NGC 5307.
This Hubble image shows the planetary nebula...
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the bipolar (two-lobed) planetary nebula NGC 2371/2.
This image shows the planetary...
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a stunning image of NGC 2022, a vast orb of gas in space, cast off by an aging star.
This image, taken...
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released a beautiful photo taken by the FORS (FOcal Reducer and Spectrograph) instrument on the Very Large...
When the Universe was still very young, only a few kinds of atoms existed. Astrophysicists believe that around 100,000 years after the Big Bang, ionized...
The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released an absolutely beautiful photo taken by its Very Large Telescope (VLT) of a planetary nebula called...
NASA has released a beautiful photo snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the planetary nebula NGC 3918.
This Hubble image shows the planetary...
Astronomers using ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory have discovered an unusual laser emission from the planetary nebula Menzel 3 (often referred to as...
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), astronomers have produced the first detailed optical maps of the gas and dust distributed throughout the spectacular...