Hubble Space Telescope shows an optical image of NGC 5315, a planetary nebula located about 7,000 light years from Earth in the constellation of Circinus.

Planetary nebulas are gaseous clouds created in the last stages of the lifetime of a star like the sun. (Though the term "planetary nebula" is applied to this class of objects, it is a misnomer, like "English horn," as these objects have nothing to do with planets. But the objects looked like planets when viewed through early small optical telescopes.)

NGC 5315 became an X-ray source when powerful winds from a particularly young star at the center collided with the ejected material. This action rendered it visible to the Chandra X-ray telescope, which does not always see planetary nebulas in X-ray light.

Interestingly, astronomers discovered NGC 5315 inadvertently, while searching for the object Hen 2-99 in the same region of space. Although Hen 2-99 was too faint to be detected, the researchers noticed planetary nebula NGC 5315 a large distance away from the aimpoint of the Chandra telescope, where the image is not as sharp.

--Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and SPACE.com Staff

Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team