Space Week image: The Ladybug Nebula

In 2009, the Hubble Space Telescope imaged the beautiful Beetle Nebula (NGC 6302). This planetary nebula is located 4,000 light-years from Earth.

A dying star – its mass was five times greater than the mass of the Sun – created this cosmic display of light. The star shed its outer layers at a speed of more than 950,000 kilometers per hour. This warm gas was drained away from the star’s poles, forming a bi-lobed structure. These two lobes resemble the wings of a butterfly or an hourglass. The will of our sun Die in five billion years It also releases its outer layers of gas. This results in a planetary nebula.

The secret of this dipole nebula
Remarkably, the Beetle Nebula is a dipole planetary nebula. Most planetary nebulae with a single central star are round, such as fog ring employment Helixneville. Bipolar planetary nebulae are usually caused by two or more stars, but in the Beetle nebula even today No second star found.

One of the hottest stars
Fun Fact: The star is in the heart of the Ladybug Nebula It is one of the hottest stars in our galaxy. The body temperature is more than 220,000 degrees Celsius. This makes the star 35 times hotter than our sun. The star will slowly cool down from now on.

The star plays hide and seek
The dying star is not shown in the photo. “The star is difficult to find because it is hidden behind a cloud of dust and ice in the middle of the nebula,” explains Professor Albert Zigelstra of the University of Manchester. The star is located exactly in the middle between two lobes.

Download this beautiful satellite image
Do you want to download this amazing HD space image? click here For a closer look at the Beetle Nebula.