Stargazers have plenty of reasons to look up throughout August – a month marked by meteor showers, planetary conjunctions and even a visible nebula. Yes, a formation known as the "dumbbell nebula" – ...

The universe is a slow-changing place. While it's mostly true that the heavens and the deep-sky objects in it will look largely the same across an average human lifetime, there are dramatic examples ...

In the cold dark of the constellation Ophiuchus, a faint, wraithlike shell of gas is quietly advertising the fate that awaits our own Sun. Astronomers call it the Little Ghost Nebula, a planetary ...

Astronomers suspect there is at least one other star interacting with the material cast off by the central dying star in NGC 6072, creating the abnormal appearance of this planetary nebula. Credit: ...

Planetary nebulae represent a brief, yet illuminating, phase in the evolution of low- to intermediate-mass stars. These glowing shells of ionised gas are shed in the late stages of stellar development ...

Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. They simply appeared kinda like planets in telescopes long ago, their glowing disks suggesting a name that linked them to actual planetary disks. The ...

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The planetary nebula NGC 6302 is one the most-studied of cosmic ...

Of the approximately 3,000 planetary nebulae known in the galaxy, most are asymmetrical. But one planetary in Camelopardalis, just 7.5° from Polaris, is the poster child for symmetry. The Lemon Slice ...