Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2017

36 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2017 SPACE CHRONICLES The strange structures of the Saturn Nebula by ESO T he Saturn Nebula is located approxi- mately 5000 light years away in the constel- lation of Aquarius (The Water Bearer). Its name derives from its odd shape, which resembles every- one’s favourite ringed planet seen edge-on. But in fact, planetary neb- ulae have nothing to do with planets. The Saturn Nebula was originally a low-mass star, which ex- panded into a red giant at the end of its life and began to shed its outer layers. This material was blown out by strong stel- lar winds and energised by ultraviolet radiation from the hot stellar core left be- hind, creating a circumstel- lar nebula of dust and brightly-coloured hot gas. At the heart of the Saturn Nebula lies the doomed T he spectacular planetary nebula NGC 7009, or the Saturn Nebula, emerges from the darkness like a series of oddly-shaped bubbles, lit up in glorious pinks and blues. This colourful image was captured by the powerful MUSE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), as part of a study which mapped the dust inside a planetary nebula for the first time. [ESO/J. Walsh]