December 12, 1995
The light from the farthest visible stars set out on its journey long before your first birthday.
Shapley 1: An Annular Planetary Nebula
Birthday · December 12, 1995
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APOD published December 12, 1995. Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
This strange structure is what can result when a normal star runs out of nuclear fuel in its core. At that time, the center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmospheric layers are expelled into space and appear as a planetary nebula. This particular planetary nebula, designated Shapley 1 after the famous astronomer Harlow Shapley, has a very apparent annular ring like structure. Although some of these nebula appear like planets on the sky (hence their name), they actually surround stars far outside our solar system.
Image credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board