NGC 2392, Eskimo Nebula

The breathtakingly beautiful Eskimo Nebula is an intricate structure of shells and streamers of gas around a dying Sun-like star 5000 light-years away. The disc of material is embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, their tails streaming away from the central, dying star. The planetary nebula began to form about 10 000 years ago, when the dying star started to expel an intense 'wind' of high-speed material out into space.