NASA revealed the “heavenly eyes”
MOSCOW, 26 Aug — RIA Novosti. NASA published a picture of the planetary nebula NGC 3918-shaped “eyes”.
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Frame made using one of the cameras of the Hubble space telescope, shows a brilliant cloud of colourful gas in the constellation of Centaurus, which is about 4900 light years from Earth.
As scholars have noted, the distinctive feature of NGC 3918 is “eye” shape with a bright Central star and a more transparent outer shell.
This phenomenon occurs due to the fact that the powerful jets of gas are separated from the star at a speed of about 350 000 kilometres per hour.
By the standards of astronomical phenomena planetary nebulae, such as NGC 3918, a very short-lived and have a life expectancy of only a few tens of thousands of years.
Planetary nebula is an astronomical object consisting of ionized gas shell and the Central star, a white dwarf. Nebulae are formed when resetting external shells of red giants and supergiants at the final stage of their evolution.