Beautiful in death, this is planetary nebula CVMP 1, 6,500 lightyears away in the southern constellation of Circinus, the Compass.
Imaged by the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile, it shows gases aglow in the radiation of a newly exposed hot core, as an old red giant star dies and casts off its outer layers into interstellar space.
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Release date 20 February 2020
Observatory Gemini Observatory
Image creditThe international Gemini Observatory/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA
