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Siberian Crane, from the Wikimedia Commons.

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Eye in the Sky

The sands of time are running out for the central star of this the
Hourglass Nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief,
spectacular, closing phase of a sun-like star's life occurs as its outer
layers are ejected and its core becomes a cooling, fading white dwarf.
In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to make a series of
emages of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate
rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and
oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the 'hourglass.' The
unprecedented sharpness of Hubble's images revealed surprising details
of the nebula ejection process and may resolve the outstanding mystery
of the variety of complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulae.

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Into the Night

Researchers do not yet know what is lighting up IRAS 05437+2502, a
small, faint nebula that spans only 1/18th of a full moon toward the
constellation of the Taurus. Particularly enigmatic is the bright
upside-down V that defines the upper edge of this floating mountain of
interstellar dust.

This ghost-like nebula involves a small star-forming region filled with
dark dust that was first noted in images taken by the IRAS satellite in
infrared light in 1983. This recently released image from the Hubble
Space Telescope shows many new details, but has not uncovered a clear
cause of the bright sharp arc.

Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, R. Sahai (JPL)

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