Zooming in on The Medusa Nebula | ESO

Zooming in on The Medusa Nebula | ESO

This video zoom takes you from a wide view of the sky deep into the constellation of Gemini (The Twins). There we see a strange object—the Medusa Nebula. As the star at the heart of this nebula made its final transition into retirement, it shed its outer layers into space, forming this colorful cloud. The image foreshadows the final fate of the Sun, which will eventually also become an object of this kind. The final very detailed image was captured using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope in Chile.

Distance: 1,500 light years

Credit: European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger 

Duration: 50 seconds

Release Date: May 20, 2015

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