One of the most amazing objects in the sky is the Helix Nebula, an expanding cloud of gas and dust surrounding a dying star. This type of object is called a planetary nebula, and it's formed when a star a bit more massive than the Sun turns into a red giant and blows off its outer layers. These expand away, and eventually the hot core of the star is exposed. This floods the gas with ultraviolet light, causing it to glow pretty much like a neon sign*. The Spitzer Space Telescope and GALEX combined their forces to observe the Helix Nebula, and what they see is simply stunning:
Oh my. [Click to ennebulenate, or grab a 6000 x 6000 pixel version.] GALEX sees in the ultraviolet, so it's sensitive to the light coming from the central star and the hot gas reacting to it (colored blue in the picture). Spitzer ...
