Pictures of the Week: August 7 – 13, 2004

Star Bright
This false-color image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a dying star surrounded by a cloud of glowing gas and dust. Thanks to Spitzer's dust-piercing infrared eyes, the new image also highlights a never-before-seen feature — a giant ring of material slightly offset from the cloud's core. This clumpy ring consists of material that was expelled from the aging star. The star and its cloud halo constitute a "planetary nebula" called NGC 246