The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made a rare celestial catch. Close to a bright, nearby star in this image, the bizarre, whorl-shaped object known as IRAS 22036+5306 has been captured during a brief tumultuous period late in a star's life.

Inside IRAS 22036+5306 lies an aged star that has coughed off almost all of its outer material, forming a cloud in space. Hidden under this veil, the dense, still-burning, exposed core of the star grows hotter. Encircling the star is a torus consisting partly of castoff material, as well as possibly the grainy remnants of comets and other small, rocky bodies. Twin jets spout from the star’s poles and pierce this dusty waist. The jets contain gobbets of material — typically about ten thousand times the mass of the Earth — hurling outwards at a speed of nearly 800 000 kilometres per hour.

IRAS 22036+5306 is making the transition through the protoplanetary, or preplanetary, nebula phase. Only a few hundred such nebulae have been spotted in our galaxy. For now, light from the central star is merely being reflected off its expelled gaseous shell. Soon, however, the star will become a very hot, white dwarf, and its intense ultraviolet radiation will ionise the blown-off gas, making it glow in rich colours. IRAS 22036+5306 will have then blossomed into a fully-fledged planetary nebula, and this event will serve as a last hurrah before the star starts its very slow final cool-down.

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