Cosmic Pyrotechnics: New Planetary Nebula Dazzling Astronomers

Cosmic Soccer Ball
The newly discovered Kronberger 61 nebula is essentially a shell of ionized gas that owes its blue light to charged oxygen molecules. The bright object to the bottom left of the nebula is actually a distant galaxy.

Elephant's Trunk
That's both the look and the name of this nebula, whose picture was snapped by th Spitzer telescope. Within the vast cloud, numerous infant stars are being born.

Equus
The famed Horsehead Nebula is located 1,500 light years from Earth in the constellation Orion. It was first noticed on a photographic plate at the Harvard College Observatory in 1888.

Fireflies
In 2002, astronomers observed the star V838 Monocerotis undergoing what they termed an "outburst." The event might either have been a nova eruption or a merger of a binary star system. Either way, the event is still very much a fixture in the sky, with its light reflecting off an expanding dust cloud.

Fireworks
This image of the spectacular Crab Nebula was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The explosion that created the expanding cloud was actually witnessed by Japanese and Chinese astronomers in 1054, but that doesn't mean the event took place then. The nebula is 6,500 light years from Earth, so any glimpse we get of it is precisely that old.

Magic Carpet
The appropriately named Veil Nebula is thought to be the remains of one or two supernovas that detonated 15,000 years ago at a distance of 2,500 light years from Earth. Had you been around to observe the explosion, it would have outshone a crescent moon in the sky.

Merry Christmas
The Cone Nebula is defined by its dark conical shape at bottom and a vague, inverted Christmas tree shape above it. The brightest star, just above the cone, is thought of by astronomers as the tree topper.

Pas de Deux
The Heart and Soul Nebulae were photographed by another of NASA's infrared telescopes, the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE. The nebula are located about 7,500 light eyars from Earth.

Space dragon
The Carina nebula lies up to 10,000 light years from Earth and surrounds several clusters of stars. It is one of the largest nebulae ever seen. It was discovered in 1752 via telescope observations from the Cape of Good Hope.

Star wisp
The tenuous Jellyfish Nebula is located about 5,000 light years from Earth. The bright yellow bodies on either side of the image are a pair of much closer stars.

Stellar incubator
The Trifid nebula, discovered by the Spitzer telescope, is home to numerous embryonic stars. It's the comparative warmth of the Trifid that made it so easily detectable by Spitzer, which sees in the infrared.

Storm Front
The Lagoon nebula, located 4,000 to 6,000 light years from Earth measures 100 by 50 light years. The formation contains several fancifully named Bok globules — collapsing clouds of protostellar material.

Tower of Power
The Eagle nebula is a column of dust rising 9.5 light years. It's lit from behind by young, bright stars.

Wheels Within Wheels
The Cat's Eye Nebula was discovered by astronomer William Herschel in 1786 and has been fascinating star-gazers ever since. It is made of eleven shells of gas and a range of complex structures resembling knots, jet, bubbles and sinews. This image was captured by the Hubble.