A Dying Star: The Dumbbell Nebula

The outer layers of a dying star form a huge cloud of gas, lit up by the core.

In an estimated 5billion years time, our own sun will turn into a nebula like this one.

The photograph, taken by Bill Snyder and featured on Nasa’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website, shows the Dumbbell Nebula, or M27.

It is about 1,360 light years from earth and can be seen by stargazers with amateur telescopes and even binoculars.

The nebula was spotted by accident in the 18th century but experts still do not know the exact way in which dying stars expel gases.

NASA said: “M27 is one of the brightest planetary nebulae on the sky, and can be seen toward the constellation of the Fox (Vulpecula) with binoculars.

“It takes light about 1000 years to reach us from M27, shown in colours emitted by hydrogen and oxygen."