Image: Crescent Nebula

Image: Crescent Nebula

The young massive star, which began its life at a size of 25 times the size of the sun, throws out material and fast winds to create this amazing sight. Survey conducted telescope XMM-Newton.

The picture shows the detailed structure of the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888). This is the outer shell of a red giant, thrown 200,000 years ago. Rapid winds have appeared recently and now collide with the material, because of which the gases heat up and create X-rays.

A green hue is also noticeable — it is created by oxygen atoms where the wind contacts the surrounding interstellar medium. Differences in the density of the surrounding material can lead to the formation of various structures, such as an extended bubble segment (top right). Most likely, the star will die in a supernova explosion. The Crescent Nebula is 5,000 light-years distant from us and lives in Cygnus. The telescope XMM-Newton launched in 1999. Astronomers managed to make this frame when it moved to the necessary part of the sky in 2014.

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