Fact Sheet
Stingray Nebula
A new planetary nebula -- the remains of a dying star -- came into view recently for Hubble Space Telescope. Dubbed the Stingray Nebula because of its shape, the glowing gas cloud lies 18,000 light-years away in the southern constellation Ara, the altar. The Stingray is the youngest planetary nebula ever discovered and a rare specimen for astronomers who study stellar evolution. Though stars may burn for billions of years, the transition from star to nebula takes only about 100 years. When a star like our Sun reaches the end of its fuel supply, it expands into a red giant, then casts off its outer layers as a nebulous cloud. Heat from the leftover stellar core causes the gas to glow. Until recently the gas of the Stingray Nebula was not hot enough to glow.
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