Behold the terrifyingly named Clownface Nebula

In 1797 , legendary uranologist William Herschel first catch sight of this object and declared it “ a very remarkable phenomenon . ” Although it ’s sometimes called the Clownface Nebula , it ’s probably well know as the Eskimo Nebula , because it resembles ( however mistily ) a person ’s face inside a parka hood .

Located about 3,000 low-cal - year away , it only measures about a third of a scant - year across . It ’s what ’s know as a planetary nebula , the leftover of the gas expel by a dying star . This particular image is draw from two earlier photos taken in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum , which creates a view far more elaborated and complex than any we could hope to see with our puny oculus , what with not being able-bodied to see anything unless it ’s in the visible spectrum ( the clew really is in the name ) . Here ’s some more from NASA :

In 2000 , the Hubble Space Telescope project the Eskimo Nebula in visible light , while the nebula was imaged in X - rays by the Chandra X - ray Observatory in 2007 . The above compound visible - disco biscuit ray image , with ten - shaft emitted by fundamental live gaseous state and point in garden pink , was give up last week . From outer space , the nebula display gas cloud so complex they are not full interpret . The Eskimo Nebula is understandably a planetary nebula , and the gas seen above pen the outer stratum of a Sun - like star only 10,000 years ago . The inner strand seeable above are being ejected by strong twist of particles from the central star . The out disk hold back unusual light - class long orange filaments .

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