Astronomers once thought that an ordinary star such as our Sun would simply
blast gas randomly into space when it died. But this picture from the Hubble
Space Telescope of an exploded star known as the “ant nebula”, suggests a more
dramatic death. How does a spherical star produce such a non-spherical but
symmetrical shape? Perhaps it was spinning and twisted its magnetic field into
bizarre shapes, or it had a companion in a close orbit that shaped the gas as it
poured out. “This image is telling us how little we understand,” says Howard
Bond of the Space Telescope…
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features

Life
Fossil fruits show flowering plants flourished in time of dinosaurs
News

Environment
Can home batteries help save the climate and save you money?
News

ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû1000¼¯ºÏ
We’ve uncovered a master gene that switches on human development
News

Environment
The race to understand how and when Thwaites glacier will collapse
Features
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles
1
Woman with Alzheimer's starts conversing again after taking psilocybin
2
If you aren't terrified by this heatwave, you should be
3
The race to understand how and when Thwaites glacier will collapse
4
Lost books by ancient philosophers recovered from 'unreadable' scrolls
5
Our verdict on The Selfish Gene: An unpopular piece of popular science
6
We’ve uncovered a master gene that switches on human development
7
The surprising ways your brain changes from your 20s to your 40s
8
Phages could enable us to hijack vaccine immunity to kill cancer cells
9
Screwworm could be the first species targeted by an 'extinction drive'
10
Where, when and how to watch the 2026 solar eclipse