Click through the gallery to see this week’s helping of images not made on planet Earth. And if you need more when you’re done but can’t wait until the next one, here’s the entire collection.
Space Photos of the Week: A Nebula Becomes a Butterfly
Space photos of the week, August 23–29.
The Twin Jet Nebula has beautiful, illuminated “wings” of gas caused by the last stages of an old star “of low to intermediate mass.” The star’s outer layers are gone, leaving the core exposed and glowing. The Twin Jet Nebula is a bipolar nebula, meaning it contains two stars. Astronomers believe this is the reason for the distinctive wing shape as the dying stars expel gases.<a href="http://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/hubble-sees-the-wings-of-a-butterfly-the-twin-jet-nebula"> ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt</a>
