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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

Hubble catches nebula fizzling out faster than thought possible

• New Atlas - Michael Irving

Planetary nebulae are basically slow-motion explosions in space, expected to expand and then fade over tens of thousands of years. But in an unprecedented show, the Hubble Space Telescope has witnessed a nebula fading and shrinking dramatically within just 20 years, suggesting it may disappear entirely in the next few decades.

When stars of a certain size begins to die, they swell up into red giants, throwing off layers of dust and gas. Eventually the star collapses back into a white dwarf, which heats up the material around it until it glows. This phase is expected to last for tens of thousands of years, so from our limited human perspective these celestial fireworks appear frozen in time.


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