Fact Sheet
Ghostly Bubble
A star in the final stages of life expels shells of gas and dust in NGC 3242. It's nicknamed "the Ghost of Jupiter" because when viewed through a telescope it resembles the disk of the planet Jupiter. This long exposure by Hubble Space Telescope, however, reveals different shells of gas expanding into space from the core of the dying star. When the shells dissipate, only the small, hot core of the star will remain. A similar fate awaits the Sun in several billion years. [Credit: NASA/STScI/B. Balick (U. Washington) et al]
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