05-22-2026, 06:42 AM
The Crystal Ball Nebula
The Crystal Ball Nebula is a planetary nebula, a term that's misleading and dates back to observations made decades ago. In the past, astronomers who didn't have the tools we have today saw this as fuzziness around a star through their ancient optics and thought it was planets orbiting a star. Today, we know they are dying stars that have run out of hydrogen fuel, and as that happens, the outer layers are blown off the star's surface as each heavier element is depleted. This will happen to our own sun one day.
In this case, the dying star has a companion in orbit, which produces a very strange, beautiful, and chaotic nebula that has been captured by Gemini North on Mauna Kea.
https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2...cache=true&
![[Image: noirlab2613a.jpg]](https://storage.noirlab.edu/media/archives/images/screen/noirlab2613a.jpg)
The Crystal Ball Nebula is a planetary nebula, a term that's misleading and dates back to observations made decades ago. In the past, astronomers who didn't have the tools we have today saw this as fuzziness around a star through their ancient optics and thought it was planets orbiting a star. Today, we know they are dying stars that have run out of hydrogen fuel, and as that happens, the outer layers are blown off the star's surface as each heavier element is depleted. This will happen to our own sun one day.
In this case, the dying star has a companion in orbit, which produces a very strange, beautiful, and chaotic nebula that has been captured by Gemini North on Mauna Kea.
https://noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2...cache=true&