VIENTOS Y ALAS ▲ Hubble Watches the Icy Blue Wings of Hen 2-437 | NASA

Hubble Watches the Icy Blue Wings of Hen 2-437 | NASA

Hubble Watches the Icy Blue Wings of Hen 2-437

In this cosmic snapshot, the spectacularly symmetrical wings of Hen 2-437 show up in a magnificent icy blue hue. Hen 2-437 is a planetary nebula, one of around 3,000 such objects known to reside within the Milky Way.

Located within the faint northern constellation of Vulpecula (The Fox), Hen 2-437 was first identified in 1946 by Rudolph Minkowski, who later also discovered the famous and equally beautiful M2-9 (otherwise known as the Twin Jet Nebula). Hen 2-437 was added to a catalog of planetary nebula over two decades later by astronomer and NASA astronaut Karl Gordon Henize.

Planetary nebulae such as Hen 2-437 form when an aging low-mass star — such as the sun — reaches the final stages of life. The star swells to become a red giant, before casting off its gaseous outer layers into space. The star itself then slowly shrinks to form a white dwarf, while the expelled gas is slowly compressed and pushed outwards by stellar winds. As shown by its remarkably beautiful appearance, Hen 2-437 is a bipolar nebula — the material ejected by the dying star has streamed out into space to create the two icy blue lobes pictured here.

Image credit: ESA (European Space Agency)/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Text credit: ESA

Last Updated: Feb. 12, 2016

Editor: Rob Garner

el dispensador dice: el universo visible te concede la oportunidad de desplegar alas y volar, contemplar y reflexionar, aprender a valorar el significado de las esencias... una geometría que sólo proveen las estrellas y sus energías magnéticas... apreciar lo que se te enseña... te permite nutrir el espíritu con la convergencia de las coincidencias... o con las cascadas de las confluencias... donde el alma se expande... cuando vuela. FEBRERO 13, 2016.-