👁️ This nebula is easy on the eyes 👁️ Peer into the Retina Nebula, the dying star in this image captured by NASAHubble. This planetary nebula exhibits a high degree of symmetry – the left and right sides are nearly mirror images. From Earth, we are viewing the donut-shaped nebula from the side, which spans a little less than 1 light-year across. From this perspective, we can see the intricate criss-cross tendrils of dust that give an appearance like an eye’s retina. These dark lanes of highly concentrated dust and gas are about 160 astronomical units wide (1 astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the Sun). Gas from inside the donut is ionized by light from the central star and glows. The range of colors shows the different concentrations of three gasses in this nebula. In this image, light from oxygen atoms is rendered blue, hydrogen is shown as green, and nitrogen as red. We can’t help being starry-eyed! 🤩 Credit: NASA, EuropeanSpaceAgency, Hubble Heritage Team ...