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Back Planetary Nebula NGC 6210

Planetary Nebula NGC 6210


Depicts: NGC 6210, IRAS 16423+2353
Copyright: Robert Rubin and Christopher Ortiz (NASA Ames Research Center), Patrick Harrington and Nancy Jo Lame (University of Maryland), Reginald Dufour (Rice University), and NASA

The NASA/ESAHubble Space Telescope has shown us that the shrouds of gas surrounding dying, sunlike stars (called planetary nebulae) come in a variety of strange shapes, from an "hourglass" to a "butterfly" to a "stingray." With this image of NGC 6210, the Hubble telescope has added another bizarre form to the rogues gallery of planetary nebulae: a turtle swallowing a seashell. Giving this dying star such a weird name is less of a challenge than trying to figure out how dying stars create these unusual shapes.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
20-Jan-2026 22:14 UT

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