Planetary Nebula NGC 2818

The planetary nebula designated NGC 2818, lies in the southern constellation of Pyxis. The colors in the image, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope, represent a range of emissions coming from the clouds of the nebula: red represents nitrogen, green represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen. The spectacular structure of the planetary nebula contains the outer layers of a star that were expelled into interstellar space. The glowing gaseous shrouds in the nebula were shed by the central star after it ran out of fuel to sustain the nuclear reactions in its core. Our own Sun will undergo a similar process, but not for another 5 billion years or so. Planetary nebulae fade gradually over tens of thousands of years. The hot, remnant stellar core of NGC 2818 will eventually cool off for billions of years as a white dwarf. NGC 2818 is often heralded as one of the galaxy's few planetary nebulae to be discovered as a member of an open star cluster.