A Beautiful End
A Beautiful End
Image courtesy N. Ruiz et al, IAA-CSIC/CXC/STScI/NASA
Resembling a face with a furry hood, the iconic Eskimo nebula is some 4,000 light-years from Earth. It shines bright in this composite image—released July 11—created from optical data taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the Chandra X-ray Observatory.
The colorful "parka" or outer shell of gas and dust is expanding at speeds of 31,000 miles (50,000 kilometers) an hour, and is lit up by the radiation blasting out from the remains of a dying red giant at the center of the nebula.
The part of the gas cloud glowing at a million degrees near the center appears pink to Chandra's x-ray eye, while Hubble's vision highlights intricate streamers of gas in the outer shell in red, green, and blue.
