ThisHubble Space Telescope snapshot shows Hen-1357,the youngest known planetary nebula.Graceful, gentle curves and symmetr suggestits popular name TheStingray Nebula.Observations in the 1970s detected no nebular material, butthis image from March 1996 clearly shows the Stingray'semerging bubbles and rings of shocked and ionized gas.The gas is energized by the hot central star as it nears theend of its life, evolving toward final white dwarf phase.The image also shows a companion star (at about 10 o'clock) withinthe nebula.Astronomers suspect that such companionsaccount fo thecomplex shapes and rings ofthis and many other planetary nebulae.This cosmic infant is about 130 times the size of our own solar systemand growing.It is 18,000 light-years distant, in th southern constellation Ara.
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