Posted on 11/28/2025 3:01:24 PM PST by MtnClimber
Explanation: NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a about 25 light-years across, a cosmic bubble blown by winds from its central, massive star. This deep telescopic image includes narrowband image data, to isolate light from hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen atoms produce the blue-green hue that seems to enshroud the nebula's detailed folds and filaments. Visible within the nebula, 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. In fact, the Crescent 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. Found in the nebula rich constellation Cygnus, NGC 6888 is about 5,000 light-years away.
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For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
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Looks like a giant brain...................
Tripe?
Spock’s Brain
Planet Menudo?.............
WR 136 is actually a little to the upper left of center in this case, closer to the brightest edge of the nebula. I would guess it’s moving that direction with respect to the interstellar medium, causing that side to heat up more from the colliding stuff.
Hah! I was just looking at the recipe. Haven’t thought about tripe for years, but now I can’t get it out of my mind.
I love menudo...................
It’s a pretty cool object.
And pretty dangerous. When a Wolf-Rayet star goes boom it’s known as a stripped core supernova which produces a gamma ray burst in a narrow beam along the poles. Any planets along that beam for thousands of light years gets torched. Most likely none of them are pointed at us, though.
Now that was a KABOOM!!
Thank God for that! Hopefully He won’t aim one at us……..
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