Planetary Nebulae

Hubble Captures a Star’s Swan Song – NASA Science

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Hubble Captures a Star’s Swan Song – NASA Science

The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space in this stunning image seem surreal, like a portal to another world opening up before us. In fact, the subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is very real. We are seeing vast clouds of ionized atoms and molecules, thrown into space by a dying … Read more

X-ray Signal Points to Destroyed Planet, Chandra Finds – NASA

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X-ray Signal Points to Destroyed Planet, Chandra Finds – NASA

A planet may have been destroyed by a white dwarf at the center of a planetary nebula — the first time this has been seen. As described in our latest press release, this would explain a mysterious X-ray signal that astronomers have detected from the Helix Nebula for over 40 years. The Helix is a … Read more

Webb Finds Plethora of Carbon Molecules Around Young Star – NASA Science

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Webb Finds Plethora of Carbon Molecules Around Young Star – NASA Science

In a new study, this team explored the region around a very low-mass star known as ISO-ChaI 147, a 1 to 2 million-year-old star that weighs just 0.11 times as much as the Sun. The spectrum revealed by Webb’s MIRI shows the richest hydrocarbon chemistry seen to date in a protoplanetary disk – a total … Read more

Hubble Celebrates 34th Anniversary with a Look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula – NASA Science

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Hubble Celebrates 34th Anniversary with a Look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula – NASA Science

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin … Read more

NASA’s Webb Discovers Dusty ‘Cat’s Tail’ in Beta Pictoris System – NASA

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NASA’s Webb Discovers Dusty ‘Cat’s Tail’ in Beta Pictoris System – NASA

Beta Pictoris, a young planetary system located just 63 light-years away, continues to intrigue scientists even after decades of in-depth study. It possesses the first dust disk imaged around another star — a disk of debris produced by collisions between asteroids, comets, and planetesimals. Observations from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope revealed a second debris disk … Read more

Webb Study Reveals Rocky Planets Can Form in Extreme Environments – NASA

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Webb Study Reveals Rocky Planets Can Form in Extreme Environments – NASA

An international team of astronomers has used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to provide the first observation of water and other molecules in the highly irradiated inner, rocky-planet-forming regions of a disk in one of the most extreme environments in our galaxy. These results suggest that the conditions for terrestrial planet formation can occur in … Read more