Looking like an emerging space cocoon, the Crescent Nebula, visible in the center of the above image, was created by the brightest star in its center.
A leading progenitor hypothesis has the Crescent Nebula beginning to form about 250,000 years ago.
At that time, the massive central star had evolved to become a Wolf-Rayet star (WR 136), shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind, ejecting the equivalent of our Sun's mass every 10,000 years.
This wind impacted surrounding gas left over from a previous phase, compacting it into a series of complex shells, and lighting it up.
