Friday, September 20, 2013

M2-9 The Wings of a Butterfly Nebula


M2-9  The Wings of a Butterfly Nebula

This is a high definition picture of a planetary nebula. This one was formed by a pair of quickly rotating stars on their way to become white dwarfs. When a star becomes a white dwarf, it sheds its outer layers of gas, this results in the impressive structures that we can see. This nebula will fade in about two thousand years.

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