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Astronomy Picture of the Day
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
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#86615
by
[z]Barbara Harris
@
08.05.2006 00:00
- nach oben -
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
Explanation: Like a
butterfly
, a
white dwarf star
begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the
Sun
would be a
caterpillar
and the ejected shell of gas would become the prettiest of all! In the
above cocoon
, the
planetary nebula
designated NGC 2440,
contains one of the hottest white dwarf stars known
. The
white dwarf
can be seen as the bright dot near the photo's center.
Our Sun will eventually become a "white dwarf butterfly"
, but not for another 5 billion years. The
above false color image
was post-processed by
Forrest Hamilton
.
Credit & Copyright