Abell 30 in 60 Seconds

Narrator (April Hobart, CXC): A planetary nebula is formed in the late stage of the evolution of a sun-like star, after it expands to become a red giant. These images show the planetary nebula A30, located about 5500 light years from Earth, which is going through a special, rarely-seen phase of evolution. The planetary nebula formed, but then the star briefly reverted to being a red giant. The evolution of the planetary nebula then restarted, making it reborn. Here is a close-up view of A30, showing X-ray data from Chandra in purple and optical data from Hubble in orange. A larger view shows optical and X-ray data from Kitt Peak and XMM-Newton, respectively, where the optical data is colored orange, green and blue, and X-ray emission is colored purple.