Space Tribute for Leicester City Win
- 11th May 2016
- Author: Tamela Maciel
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the Leicester City Football Club from all of us at the National Space Centre.
For the first time in history, the Foxes are Premier League Champions and we’re over the moon for our home football team!
Blinking Nebula
We think this blue, white, and orange planetary nebula is a colourful tribute to the Foxes’ triumph. A planetary nebula is an expanding cloud of glowing gas that has been blown off in layers from the surface of a dying star.
Each nebula is unique in shape and colour, depending on what the star is made of, how quickly it dies, and whether it has any nearby companion stars or planets. The Hubble Space Telescope has photographed hundreds of these nebulae, helping us understand how stars can spread different elements throughout the universe.
This blue and orange planetary nebula is known as the Blinking Nebula (proper name NGC 6826) and can be found in the constellation Cygnus. Clouds of oxygen (blue) and nitrogen (orange) are being blown outwards by a central star about 2,200 light-years away from Earth. This dying star is still so bright that it can obscure the rest of the cloud, causing the nebula to ‘blink’ in and out when viewed through a telescope.
To see more nebulae, check out this gorgeous Hubble gallery .
