Astronomers using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope in Chile managed to look into the face of Medusa and give the world a clear image into the incredible ancient starburst.

Behind the incredible beauty of the Medusa Nebula is a sad story that foreshadows the fate of our own galaxy’s Sun, which will eventually also become a nebula as it makes its transition to retirement.

Named after the Gorgon Medusa, the Medusa Nebula – also known as Sharpless 2-274 – spans approximately four light-years and lies at a distance of about 1500 light-years. Despite its size, it is extremely dim and hard to observe.

The Medusa was a hideous creature with snakes in the place of hair that represented the serpentine flaments of glowing gas in this nebula. The red glow from hydrogen and the fainter green emission from oxygen gas extends beyond this frame, forming a crescent shape in the sky. The ejection of mass from stars at this stage of their evolution can result in fascinating structures.

For tens of thousands of years the stellar cores of planeteary nebulae are surrounded by these spectacular colorful gas clouds as gas slowly disperses into its surroundings. This is the last phase in the transformation of stars like the Sun before they end their active lives as white dwarfs.

The planetary nebula stage in the development of a star is just a tiny fraction of its total life span that scientists at ESO’s Very Large Telescope liken it to “the time a child takes to blow a soap bubble and see it drift away (that) is a brief instant compared to a full human life span.”