In honor of the 34th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope’s launch, a new image of the Little Dumbbell Nebula was shared on April 23, 2024. The image, which comes from data stored at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, shows two lobes of glowing gas and dust on both sides of a central bar. Despite its name, the Little Dumbbell Nebula is not a remnant of a planet. Instead, it is an expanding shell of gas and dust ejected from a red giant star that collapsed into a dense, hot white dwarf star.
The white dwarf star is one of the hottest remnants known, with a temperature of 216,000 degrees Fahrenheit (120,000 degrees Celsius). Scientists believe that the rings were caused by a second star that the central white dwarf star consumed. The rest of the nebula is made up of dust and gas ejected by the central star at incredibly high speeds of 2 million mph (3.2 million km/h).
The glowing effect in this nebula is due to ultraviolet radiation emitted by the star. Red colors denote nitrogen while blue colors show oxygen. This nebula will remain visible for approximately 15,000 more years before its last bit of gas dissipates into space. The Little Dumbbell Nebula continues to be a popular target for telescopes in