Caldwell 27 Inset

The black-and-white inset is a ground-based image that displays nearly the full nebula, which spans roughly 16 by 25 light-years. The cloudy, mottled shell surrounds an extremely hot and short-lived type of star called a Wolf-Rayet. This colossal star, named WR 136, is unleashing a powerful stellar wind of charged particles from its surface, which is tearing apart the shell of surrounding material that the star blew off 250,000 years ago.