Gemini South Telescope views a dying star

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 credit The international Gemini Observatory/NSF’s National Optical-Infrared Astronomy Research Laboratory/AURA