Beautiful Death: Halos Of Planetary Nebulae Revealed
Thursday, September 11, 2008 - 20:28
in Astronomy & Space
Stars without enough mass to turn into exploding supernovae end their lives blowing away most of their mass in a non-explosive, but intense stellar wind. Only a hot stellar core remains in the form of a white dwarf; the rest of the star is dispersed into the interstellar medium, enriching it with chemically processed elements, such as carbon, that is found in all living organisms on Earth. These elements were cooked in the stellar furnace during a stellar life span covering billions of years. The high-energy radiation from the hot white dwarf makes the blown gas to shine for a short period of time, and the result is one of the most colourful and beautiful astronomical objects: a planetary nebula.
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