Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)

This Hubble Space Telescope image captures the beauty of the moth-like planetary nebula NGC 2899. This object has a diagonal, bipolar, cylindrical outflow of gas. This is propelled by radiation and stellar winds from a nearly 40,000-degree-Fahrenheit white dwarf at the center. In fact, there may be two companion stars that are interacting and sculpting the nebula, which is pinched in the middle by a fragmented ring or torus – looking like a half-eaten donut. It has a forest of gaseous “pillars” that point back to the source of radiation and stellar winds. The colors are from glowing hydrogen and oxygen. The nebula lies approximately 4,500 light-years away in the southern constellation Vela.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/nasa-celebrates-hubbles-35th-year-in-orbit/

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/