Description:

09/05/12 - 04:53 GMT

Liverpool Telescope

The King's School, Canterbury

This month we have chosen an image of the planetary nebula M57, also known as the Ring Nebula. PNs are low-mass stars that are shedding layers of their outer atmosphere towards the end their lifetime. The different colours we see are shells of different elements being ejected from what was once the hot core of the star.