Telescope captures a dying star resembling a crystal ball
AP News • • science
Key Points:
- The Gemini North Telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii captured a detailed image of the Crystal Ball Nebula, a dying binary star system located 1,500 light-years away.
- The nebula is characterized by a milky white, spherical gas cloud formed as one star sheds its outer layers near the end of its life, exposing a hot stellar core that illuminates the gas.
- Scientists believe that one of the two stars in the system, which was once larger than the sun, has died, creating the planetary nebula known as NGC 1514.
- The image was observed last year and the color version was completed and released by the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab in June 2024.