CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — The final moments of a distant star have been captured in breathtaking detail, creating one of the most beautiful cosmic images ever recorded.
Using the Gemini North Telescope positioned on Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s highest mountain, astronomers photographed this stellar death in stunning clarity. The National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, which manages the telescope, made the photograph public on Thursday.
The subject is actually a pair of stars located 1,500 light-years from our planet, commonly called the Crystal Ball Nebula due to the pale, round gas cloud that surrounds it. One light-year equals nearly 6 trillion miles.
This gaseous envelope develops when a star expels its exterior material during its final stages. The remaining stellar center then superheats this cloud to temperatures reaching tens of thousands of degrees, creating its ghostly luminescence.
Researchers think that one of the two stars in this planetary nebula system — which was originally larger than our sun — has completed its life cycle.
The nebula, officially designated NGC 1514, was observed by Gemini North during the previous year, with the full-color image processing finished just last week.
