NGC 6888: The Crescent Nebula
From NASA’s Astronomy
Picture of the Day
NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic
bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright,
massive star.
This
colorful portrait of the nebula uses narrow band image data combined
in the Hubble
palatte. It shows emission from sulfur, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms in the
wind-blown nebula in red, green and blue hues.
NGC 6888's central star is classified as a Wolf-Rayet
star (WR 136).
The star is shedding its outer envelope in a strong stellar wind,
ejecting the equivalent of the Sun's mass every 10,000 years.
The nebula's complex structures are likely the result of
this strong wind interacting with material ejected in an earlier phase.
Burning fuel at a prodigious rate and near the end of its
stellar life this star should ultimately go out with a bang in a
spectacular supernova explosion.
