Discovery Channel :: Hubble Hits: Nature's Space Gardens

HUBBLE HITS
Solar System Sentry
Into Infinity
Nature's Space Gardens
Mysteries of the Universe
The Next Generation

Special Report

	EXPAND Southern Ring Nebula EXPAND Ophiucus constellation EXPAND Planetary Nebula EXPAND Eagle Nebula EXPAND Cosmic ant Nature's Space Gardens By Irene Brown For sheer beauty, Hubble's images of planetary nebulae are unrivaled. The spectrum of colors, shapes and sizes of these glowing gas clouds is the celestial counterpart to the most intricate and well-tended flower gardens on Earth. Astronomers cannot explain the variety and particularities of planetary nebulae. The objects, formed as dying stars shed their layers of gas, were so named because to ground-based observers they appeared round and shaped rather like a planet. Hubble has shattered that illusion, but raised new questions in the process. With time, the matter cast away by stars in death may be recycled into new stars. Hubble's sharp eye has peered into celestial wombs, where infant stars wrapped in cosmic placentas are amassing energy and matter to ignite their own nuclear cores.

Pictures: Space Telescope Science Institute | Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Vincent Icke (Leiden University, The Netherlands), Garrelt Mellema (Stockholm University), and NASA | R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL), the WFPC2 Science Team and NASA | Space Telescope Science Institute | NASA/ESA/Space Telescope Science Institute |

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