Gallery beautiful planetary nebulae

Image 1 of 13

The blinking nebula

This nebula is so faint in small telescopes that it appears to blink in and out of visibility. No one knows what has caused the red "fliers" on either side of the nebula.

Distance: 2200 light years

Size: 1.5 light years

(Image: Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Jason Alexander (University of Washington), Arsen Hajian (U. S. Naval Observatory), Yervant Terzian (Cornell University), Mario Perinotto (University of Florence, Italy), Patrizio Patriarchi (Arcetri Observatory, Italy) and NASA)

All images in this gallery are from Galaxy: Exploring The Milky Way by Stuart Clark

Image 2 of 13

Boomerang nebula

Perhaps more appropriately renamed the Bow-tie nebula, this young planetary nebula has yet to achieve its mature shape.

Distance: 5000 light years

Size: 2.1 light years

(Image: R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL), NASA/ESA)

Image 3 of 13

The eskimo nebula

A ring of gaseous "spokes" surrounds two elliptical bubbles of gas, one rising towards us, the other obscured behind, in this planetary nebula.

Distance: 5000 light years

Size: 2 light years

(Image: NASA/Andrew Fruchter/ERO Team/Sylvia Baggett/STScI/Richard Hook/ST-ECF/Zoltan Levay)

Image 4 of 13

Gomez's hamburger

The star is just beginning the transition from red giant to planetary nebula. The dark band represents dust circling the star.

Distance: 6500 light years

Size: 0.25 light years

(Image: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

Image 5 of 13

Hourglass nebula

What at first appear to be loops are actually hourglass shapes of gas, with the top lobe tilted towards us.

Distance: 8000 light years

Size: 0.3 light years

(Image: R. Sahai and J. Trauger(JPL), the WFPC2 Science Team and NASA)

Image 6 of 13

Cat's eye nebula

Astonomers still do not understand the way that the intricate swirls and concentric shells in this nebula were formed.

Distance: 3000 light years

Size: 1.2 light years

(Image: NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

Image 7 of 13

Rotten egg nebula

Astronomers have detected large quantities of sulphur in this planetary nebula. The gas hydrogen sulphide is responsible for the smell of rotten eggs; hence the nebula's nickname.

Distance: 5000 light years

Size: 1.4 light years

(Image: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

Image 8 of 13

Southern crab nebula

Two stars are interacting at the centre of this planetary nebula and creating these large outflows of material.

Distance: 2000 light years

Size: 2 light years

(Image: Romano Corradi, Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (Tenerife, Spain); Mario Livio (Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore); Ulisse Munari (Osservatorrio Astronomico di Padov-Asiago, Italy); Hugo Schwarz (Nordic Optical Telescope, Canarias, Spain); and NASA)

Image 9 of 13

The ring nebula

First catalogued more than 200 years ago, the ring nebula was thought to be the classic planetary nebula. Now, however, astonomers know that ring shapes are just one form a planetary nebula can take. At infrared wavelenghts, a beautiful webwork of gaseous petals appears around the main ring nebula structure. This displays the fact that the central star began losing gas long before the formation of the prominent rings.

Distance: 2000 light years

Size: 1 light year

(Image: Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA/NASA))

Image 10 of 13

The retina nebula

Vast clouds of dust, each one wider than our entire solar system, criss-cross this planetary nebula.

Distance: 1900 light years

Size: 0.9 light years

(Image: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA))

Image 11 of 13

Spirograph nebula

The red glow in this delicately structured nebula comes from nitrogen gas and the blue traces oxygen.

Distance: 2000 light years

Size: 0.2 light years

(Image:R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) / NASA)

Butterfly nebula

It has taken this dying star just 1200 years to sculpt this fragile-looking structure from the gases of its outer layers.

Distance: 2100 light years

Size: 0.7 light years

(Image: Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Vincent Icke (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Garrelt Mellema (Stockholm University), and NASA)