Collage of Planetary Nebulas

The Hubble Space Telescope has revealed unprecedented details in the appearance of nebulas produced by Sun-like stars that have entered the death throes of their lives.

Ground-based images suggested that many of these objects, called planetary nebulas (though they are unrelated to planets), have simple spherical shapes.

Hubble has shown, however, that their shapes are much more varied and complex.

Some look like pinwheels, others like butterflies, and still others like hourglasses.

Such images yield insights into the complex dynamics that accompany a star’s release of its outer gaseous layers before it collapses to form a white dwarf.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI