hourglass nebula

The Hourglass Nebula (also known as MyCn18) is a young planetary nebula about 8,000 light-years away from Earth. It was discovered on July 30, 1995 by Raghvendra Sahai and John Trauger of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to one theory on the formation of planetary nebulae, MyCn18's hourglass shape is produced by the expansion of a fast stellar wind within a slowly expanding cloud, which is denser near its equator than near its poles. The Hourglass Nebula was photographed by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 of the Hubble Space Telescope.

References

STScI. Hubble Finds an Hourglass Nebula around a Dying Star. Press release: Space Telescope Science Institute. January 16, 1996.

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