ExploraTour: A Peek into the Lives of the Stars
Click on image for full size
Image from the Hubble Space Telescope, reproduced with permission from AURA/STScI.
Another exploded star
N132D is the scattered remains of a star that exploded some 3,000 years ago (about the time the ancient Egyptians were living on Earth).
The star responsible for this ejected material originally was 25 times heavier than the sun.
This image is particularly exciting because the blue-green color shows where oxygen can be found in outer space. This oxygen may eventually become part of the air surrounding some new planet.
The reddish parts are regions of hot gas and dust out of which new stars may form.