Egg Nebula

stsci_2026-008a February 10th, 2026

Credit: Image: NASA, ESA, Bruce Balick (UWashington)

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals the clearest view yet of the Egg Nebula — a pre-planetary nebula of gas and dust created by a dying, Sun-like star. These newest observations, taken with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, include infrared data. Powerful beams of starlight blast out of the inner cloud, illuminating the cosmic structure. Fast-moving outflows of hot molecular hydrogen also emerge from within the dust cloud, visible at the base of the searchlight beams. These outflows glow with infrared light, which appears as orange highlights. The central dust cloud is surrounded by concentric rings of thin, faint arcs of gas. These were created by successive outbursts from the central star, which ejected material from its outer surface every few hundred years. The beams of starlight are reflected by these layers of gas, creating the appearance of ripples. The reflected starlight reveals important details about the central star, which is impossible to view directly in its dusty shell.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2026/news-2026-008

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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