Star goes out with a whimper, not a bang, captured by Hubble
telescope    |   July 12, 2013 at 5:50 PM GREENBELT, Md., July
12 (UPI) -- Not all stars go out with a bang, and NASA has
released an image from the Hubble telescope of one going out
with more of a cosmic whimper.  The image shows the planetary
nebula IC 289, located in the northern constellation of
Cassiopeia. Formerly a star like the sun, it is now just a thin
cloud of ionized gas being pushed out into space by the remnants
of the star's core, visible as a small bright dot in the middle
of the cloud, NASA said Friday.  Planetary nebulae have nothing
to do with planets -- the term is a relic from a time when early
observers with small telescopes could only see undefined, hazy
objects they thought looked like gaseous planets.  Stars are
powered by nuclear fusion reactions in their cores that convert
hydrogen to helium. The star remains stable in a process that
balances the inward squeeze caused by its gravity with the
outward thrust from the inner f