In the Milky Way galaxy, just 4,600 light years from us, an incredible cosmic spectacle is unfolding. What we see in this image is the farewell of a giant star nearing the end of its life. This colorful and eye-catching structure, which we call a nebula, can be thought of as the last scene of the star's life.

This photo was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on NASA's Hubble telescope. It has been in service since 1993 and was replaced with a new camera during the last overhaul of Hubble in 2009. So we can think of this image as the farewell pose of that camera.

The paint-splattered clouds you see in the photo are made of energy-charged gas ejected by a dying star. This star was a giant red giant, and when it ran out of fuel, it shed its outer layers into space. The tiny but extremely hot core that remains is emitting ultraviolet light that makes these gas clouds glow. In other words, the star is illuminating its surroundings with its last bit of energy.

The colors are not for nothing: Red and orange regions indicate nitrogen, green hydrogen gas and blue oxygen. But here's the sad part: This feast of light and color won't last forever. The last phase of fusion going on at the center of the star will end in a few tens of thousands of years, leaving only a cooling, non-luminous white dwarf. So what we are looking at right now is like the last dance of a star... It is both fascinating and a little sad.

Image description:

A glowing, jagged ring surrounds a small central region of greenish clouds, making it look like a hole torn in the fabric. This “hole” is itself surrounded by a band of silvery-blue clouds and a larger, paler, yellow gas ring. Fluffy, smoky orange and red clouds of gas spread out from here into a large oval nebula and disappear into the dark background of star-dotted space.

 

Credit: EuropeanSpaceAgency/Hubble & NASA, K. Noll