The Little Ghost Nebula Offers A Look Into Our Future Oblivion!

Behold the Little Ghost Nebula, founded by astronomy swagger beast William Herschel back in the 18th century. The fuck are you doing with your life? Herschel was finding nebula back in the comparative goddamn dark ages. This little quaint Nebula of Ghostiness may be a look into what’ll happen to our own star.

NASA:

This pretty planetary nebula, cataloged as NGC 6369, was discovered by 18th century astronomer William Herschel as he used a telescope to explore the medicinal constellation Ophiucus. Round and planet-shaped, the nebula is also relatively faint and has acquired the popular moniker of Little Ghost Nebula. Planetary nebulae in general are not at all related to planets, but instead are created at the end of a sun-like star’s life as its outer layers expand into space while the star’s core shrinks to become a white dwarf. The transformed white dwarf star, seen near the center, radiates strongly at ultraviolet wavelengths and powers the expanding nebula’s glow. Surprisingly complex details and structures of NGC 6369 are revealed in this tantalizing image composed from Hubble Space Telescope data. The nebula’s main ring structure is about a light-year across and the glow from ionized oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen atoms are colored blue, green, and red respectively. Over 2,000 light-years away, the Little Ghost Nebula offers a glimpse of the fate of our Sun, which could produce its own planetary nebula only about 5 billion years from now.

Seeems pretty fantastic. Sadly there’s only like a 33% chance I’ll be around to see it.