A PROJECT to map the distant cosmos has turned up a surprise much closer to home: the giant remains of a star, glowing in our own galactic backyard. It is by far the biggest planetary nebula we can see from Earth.
A planetary nebula forms when a star like the sun reaches the end of its life. As its core runs out of fuel, the star’s outer atmosphere puffs out into space to form a ghostly glowing cloud, and the core shrinks to a white dwarf.
Paul Hewett of the University of Cambridge and his colleagues analysed observations from the…
