Hubble sends us Christmas greetings

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The two bright 'eyes' are thought to be stars that formed less than 10,000 years ago. Hubble sends colorful season's greeting from the cosmos

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- With its vibrant red and green coloring and vague wreath shape, a new image of the Ghost Head Nebula might well serve as the Hubble Space Telescope's holiday greeting to Earth.

The image snapped by the orbitting telescope is aimed at helping astronomers investigate how stars form, NASA said in a statement.

The nebula -- known to astronomers as NGC 2080, but nicknamed the Ghost Head Nebula because of its central white patch with two glowing "eyes" -- is one of a chain of star-forming regions in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighboring galaxy to the Milky Way.

The enhanced color picture of the Ghost Head was taken by Hubble on March 28, 2000, but released on Wednesday.

The green light on the left side of the image comes from glowing oxygen, while the red light comes from regions of hydrogen gas heated by nearby stars, according to NASA.

-- Anonymous, December 20, 2001


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