The image to the right is Hubble's face-on snapshot of the small spiral galaxy NGC 7742. A planetary nebula is the glowing relic of a dying, sun-like star . Glowing in the constellation Aquila, the nebula is a cloud of gas ejected several thousand years ago from the hot star visible in its center.
Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets.
They are shells of gas thrown off by sun-like stars nearing the ends of their lives . A telescope on board a satellite 375 miles above the Earth has revolutionized astrophysics, and our knowledge of the origins of the cosmos. Praise gushes from the mouths of most scientists asked how the 10-year old Hubble Space Telescope has affected their view of the universe. Before that, I didn't understand what people meant when they talked about what they saw. Mike Shull, an astrophysicist at the University of Colorado who has logged many hours of Hubble observing time, compared his Hubble experiences to television.