Red Rectangle Nebula
May 12, 2004
Astronomers may not have observed the fabled Stairway to Heaven, but they have photographed something almost as intriguing: ladder-like structures surrounding a dying star. A new image, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, reveals startling new details of one of the most unusual nebulae known in our Milky Way. Cataloged as HD 44179, this nebula is more commonly called the Red Rectangle because of its unique shape and color as seen with ground-based telescopes.
Topics: Technology Internet, Monoceros constellation, Protoplanetary nebulae, Space plasmas, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Red Rectangle Nebula, Bipolar nebula, Planetary nebulae, Nebula, Hourglass Nebula, Milky Way, Hubble Space Telescope