The nebula’s wispy, ghost-like appearance is due to the fact that a nearby star is bombarding it with ultraviolet radiation. This gives it what NASA calls “flowing veils of gas and dust” and officially earned it its nickname. And to make it even spookier, this onslaught of radiation is slowly killing the nebula (or in technical terms “dissipating” it).
Is space haunted?
Answer: Who’s to say for sure, but a new image from NASA points to ‘yes.’
On Oct. 25, just in time for Halloween, NASA graced us with a spooky new image from the Hubble Space Telescope. Haunting the “W”-shaped constellation Cassiopeia is the Ghost Nebula, which looks like a space version of something out of Harry Potter.
The nebula’s wispy, ghost-like appearance is due to the fact that a nearby star is bombarding it with ultraviolet radiation. This gives it what NASA calls “flowing veils of gas and dust” and officially earned it its nickname. And to make it even spookier, this onslaught of radiation is slowly killing the nebula (or in technical terms “dissipating” it).
The nebula’s wispy, ghost-like appearance is due to the fact that a nearby star is bombarding it with ultraviolet radiation. This gives it what NASA calls “flowing veils of gas and dust” and officially earned it its nickname. And to make it even spookier, this onslaught of radiation is slowly killing the nebula (or in technical terms “dissipating” it).
