Astronomy Tuesday

This was an easy choice -- NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day for today.

This is quite aptly called the Soap Bubble Nebula, discovered only a few years ago in the constellation Cygnus. It is probably a planetary nebula, the end of life for medium-sized stars like our own sun. I have to say that I find it somehow consoling that if our sun has to die -- and it does, and it will -- that it will do it beautifully.

Credit and Copyright: T. Rector (U. Alaska Anchorage), H. Schweiker (WIYN), NOAO, AURA, NSF