This Planetary (Emission) Nebula was crreated when the white dwarf star (centre) in it's former phase as a Red Giant Star underwent core collapse when it ran out of fuel to power it's nuclear fusion. Very large red dwarfs that undergo core collapse turn into neutron stars or black holes but this particular example had only enough mass to compress the remaining components to a densly packed object consisting of carbon, oxygen and helium all held together with electron degeneracy which counters and stops the inward gravitional push. It's the same force that holds our bodies together without which the atmospheric pressure and gravitional pull of earth would just squash us. During the process the outer layers are ejected into space to form the surrounding nebula. While it's the final chapter of a dead star it is also a picturesque reminder of the laws of physics that makes our existence possible in this universe.
24 Frames taken by iTelescope (6 Red, 6 Green, 6 Blue and 6 Luminance) Preprocessed, Stacked and combined in Astro Pixel Processor with cosmetic touch ups in Photoeshop and Nebulosity.
