This Hubble Space Telescope photo of a cosmic holiday ornament shows NGC 6326, a planetary nebula of glowing gas surrounding a star that is near the end of its life. "When a star ages and the red giant phase of its life comes to an end, it starts to eject layers of gas from its surface leaving behind a hot and compact white dwarf. Sometimes this ejection results in elegantly symmetric patterns of glowing gas, but NGC 6326 is much less structured. This object is located in the constellation of Ara, the Altar, about 11,000 light-years from Earth," European Space Agency officials wrote in an image description. - Tariq Malik
This Hubble Space Telescope photo of a cosmic holiday ornament shows NGC 6326, a planetary nebula of glowing gas surrounding a star that is near the end of its life. "When a star ages and the red giant phase of its life comes to an end, it starts to eject layers of gas from its surface leaving behind a hot and compact white dwarf. Sometimes this ejection results in elegantly symmetric patterns of glowing gas, but NGC 6326 is much less structured. This object is located in the constellation of Ara, the Altar, about 11,000 light-years from Earth," European Space Agency officials wrote in an image description. - Tariq Malik
This Hubble Space Telescope photo of a cosmic holiday ornament shows NGC 6326, a planetary nebula of glowing gas surrounding a star that is near the end of its life. "When a star ages and the red giant phase of its life comes to an end, it starts to eject layers of gas from its surface leaving behind a hot and compact white dwarf. Sometimes this ejection results in elegantly symmetric patterns of glowing gas, but NGC 6326 is much less structured. This object is located in the constellation of Ara, the Altar, about 11,000 light-years from Earth," European Space Agency officials wrote in an image description. - Tariq Malik