Discovered around 1920, the Hourglass Nebula was initially seen as a small and faint planetary nebula, not attracting much attention. However, modern, powerful telescopes have revealed its complex and fascinating structure, resembling an hourglass.
Scientists think the nebula's perfect symmetry comes from a fast stellar wind expanding within a slower-moving gas cloud. This cloud is denser around the equator and thinner at the poles, explaining the hourglass shape. The star that formed the nebula, now a white dwarf, is visible in the nebula's central blue part, slightly off-center. The outer ring-like structures might be concentric shells ejected by the star in the nebula's early formation stages.
This image of the Hourglass Nebula was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The colors aren't real but show the nebula's gas composition: red for ionized nitrogen, green for hydrogen, and blue for doubly ionized oxygen.
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