Hubble Captures Stars Going Out in Style

The colourful, intricate shapes in these NASA Hubble Space Telescope images reveal how the glowing gas ejected by dying Sun-like stars evolves dramatically over time. These gaseous clouds, called planetary nebulae, are created when stars in the last stages of life cast off their outer layers of material into space. The snapshots of HE 2-47, NGC 5315, IC 4593, and NGC 5307 were taken with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in February 2007.