This handout image obtained 19 February
This handout image obtained 19 February 2007 and taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope 06 February shows the colorful "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the center. Our Sun will eventually burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years. Our Milky Way Galaxy is littered with these stellar relics, called planetary nebulae. The objects have nothing to do with planets.The colors correspond to material expelled by the star. Blue corresponds to helium; blue-green to oxygen; and red to nitrogen and hydrogen. AFP PHOTO/NASA/JPL/HO =GETTY OUT=.... (Photo credit should read HO/AFP/Getty Images) |
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