Stunning image of planet-destroying star at the heart of a nebula

helix nebula

For over forty years, astronomers have been baffled by X-rays from the white dwarf at the center of the Helix Nebula. A white dwarf is the remnant of a star that has shed its outer layers to form a nebula. They do not ordinarily emit X-rays, but observations by Chandra and other X-ray telescopes have detected regular X-ray emissions for deca…