ESO's Very Large Telescope Offers Stunning View at Rare Space Structure

The European Southern Observatory's (ESO) Very Large Telescope has captured one of the most detailed images ever of the Toby Jug Jebula.

Located roughly 1,200 light-years from Earth in the southern constellation Carina (also known as The Ship's Keel), the nebula represents a cloud of gas and dust surrounding a red giant star five times the mass of the Sun.

The star, which is in a far more advanced stage in its life than the Sun, created the nebula when it sloughed off pieces of itself into space. As it cools, this material forms a cloud of gas and dust comprised of carbon, titanium dioxide, calcium oxide and silicon dioxide (silica) -- the latter of which scientists believe gives the nebula its shine. In all, the structure spans roughly one light-year.

Because this phase of a star's life is short-lived, objects like the Toby Jug Nebula are rare, the ESO reports. Red giants form as aging stars approach the end of their hydrogen supply, which fuels the reactions that occur throughout the the majority of a star's life. This causes the atmosphere to expand.

Stars like the one found at the center of the Toby Jug Nebula burn a shell of helium outside a carbon oxygen core. At times this is coupled by a hydrogen shell closer to the surface of the star.

Watching the nebula's star bloat is like looking billions of years into the future of our own Sun, at which point it will follow a similar course. When this happens, the solar atmosphere will extend far enough to engulf all of the inner planets.

Life on Earth will be long gone by then, however -- wiped out by the massive increase of radiation and stellar winds that will accompany the stellar inflation process.

The image was produced as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems program, an outreach initiative designed to build public interest and education by using telescope time that can't be used for scientific observations to collect data on "visually attractive" objects.