~Oh my ... how this speaks to me~
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M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula
Credit: B. Balick (U. Washington) and NASA.

Explanation: Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die?
Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays as they die.

In the case of low-mass stars like our Sun and M2-9 pictured above,
the stars transform themselves from normal stars to white dwarfs
by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes.

The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display
called a planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousand of years.

M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but incomplete tale.
In the center, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto.
The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk
creating the bipolar appearance.

Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause planetary nebulae.

~*When the heart grieves over what it has lost,
the spirit rejoices over what it has left.
- Sufi epigram <))><

Email noles1@totcon.com

My spirit will rise
above the sea~
There will be no drowning
of my soul or me~

Juju - 1.) a magic charm or fetish 2.)Magic 3.)A taboo connected woth the use of magic

The dictionary never lies.... I am magical (;

Nan (Pilgrim variety)

Betty Lou Hebert