The Crescent Nebula: A Gas Bubble Surrounding a Violently Dying Star
SMRTR summary
A backyard telescope in Richardson, Texas has produced one of the most breathtaking images of deep space you'll see this year, and it didn't come from NASA or a mountaintop observatory.
Astrophotographer Kevin Boardman spent five nights, totaling more than 17 hours, capturing the Crescent Nebula, a roiling cosmic structure some 5,000 light-years away. At its heart is a dying star called WR 136, a Wolf-Rayet star shedding its outer layers in violent stellar winds. Two waves of those winds, one older and slower, one newer and faster, are colliding, creating that luminous, swirling bubble roughly 25 light-years across.
The colors in the image tell a story: blue oxygen atoms losing electrons in the outer shell, red hydrogen filaments clawing them back.
Eventually, WR 136 will explode in a supernova. But there's no rush. The star will keep putting on this show for another 100,000 years or so.
SMRTR provides this summary for quick context. The original article belongs to Nautilus.
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