Can we get an encore? A planetary nebula located just 4,600 light-years away in the Milky Way galaxy puts on a spectacular display at the end of a giant star's life. The image itself was the final work of one of NASAHubble's instruments: the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). First installed in 1993, the WFPC2 was replaced in 2009 by the Wide Field Camera 3 during Hubble’s final servicing mission. The swirling, paint-like clouds in the darkness of space are clouds of ionized atoms thrown into space by a dying star. Its red giant star had exhausted its available fuel and shed its last layers of gas, enabling nuclear fusion as its compact core begins to contract further. The exposed core reaches extremely hot temperatures, radiating ultraviolet light that energizes the enormous clouds of gas cast off by the star. In this image, red and orange indicate nitrogen, green is hydrogen, and blue shows oxygen. The spectacle is bittersweet, as the brief phase of fusion in the core wil...