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Within the Realm of a Dying Star

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has been on the forefront of research into the lives of stars like our sun.

At the ends of their lives, these stars run out of nuclear fuel in a phase that is called the preplanetary or protoplanetary nebula stage. This Hubble image of the Egg Nebula shows one of the best views to date of this brief, but dramatic, phase in a star’s life.