Must-see photo: Hubble captures death of ‘rotten egg’ nebula

The Calabash Nebula, pictured here- which has the technical name OH 231.8+04.2 - is a spectacular example of the death of a low-mass star like the Sun. This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the star going through a rapid transformation from a red giant to a planetary nebula, during which it blows its outer layers of gas and dust out into the surrounding space. The recently ejected material is spat out in opposite directions with immense speed , the gas shown in yellow is moving close to a million kilometres an hour. Astronomers rarely capture a star in this phase of its evolution because it occurs within the blink of an eye  in astronomical terms. Over the next thousand years the nebula is expected to evolve into a fully fledged planetary nebula. The nebula is also known as the Rotten Egg Nebula because it contains a lot of sulphur, an element that, when combined with other elements, smells like a rotten egg  but luckily, it resides over 5000 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis (The Poop deck).

The Calabash Nebula, pictured here- which has the technical name OH 231.8+04.2 - is a spectacular example of the death of a low-mass star like the Sun. This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the star going through a rapid transformation from a red giant to a planetary nebula, during which it blows its outer layers of gas and dust out into the surrounding space. The recently ejected material is spat out in opposite directions with immense speed , the gas shown in yellow is moving close to a million kilometres an hour. Astronomers rarely capture a star in this phase of its evolution because it occurs within the blink of an eye  in astronomical terms. Over the next thousand years the nebula is expected to evolve into a fully fledged planetary nebula. The nebula is also known as the Rotten Egg Nebula because it contains a lot of sulphur, an element that, when combined with other elements, smells like a rotten egg  but luckily, it resides over 5000 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis (The Poop deck).
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By Melisa Lyons
Feb 7, 2017
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The image above was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and shows the death of a low-mass star, much like our own sun.

This star will evolve from a red giant into a planetary nebula, a ring-shaped nebula that contains gas and eventually turn into a white dwarf thousands of years later. The process for this is the outer layers of gas a dust are blown out in separate directions at speeds of more than 600,000 mile per hour.

The Calabash Nebula, commonly known as the Rotten Egg Nebula for its excess of sulfur, is over 5,000 light-years away and located in the constellation of Puppis.

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Melisa Lyons