Lots of nice nebulae this week.
Let's start with a flashy Wolf-Rayet WR-134. We've seen WR stars before — they're the remnants of a big late-in-life star having a bad day.
I spent a few weeks with my telescope pointed at this: a cosmic bubble formed by a huge, hot star at the end of its life.
— Andrew McCarthy (@AJamesMcCarthy) July 7, 2026
The intense radiation pushes an expanding envelope of stellar material into the surrounding space, creating these exquisite scenes. pic.twitter.com/zXdAeyKrQi
This one is wild. A superkilonova.
A supernova marks the death of a star. But in the case of supernova AT2025ulz, it seems a star died twice.
— Corey S. Powell (@coreyspowell) July 8, 2026
A massive star exploded. Its dense, spinning remains clumped into two neutron stars, like newborn planets, which collided & exploded again. Whoa!https://t.co/dkX40sClCi pic.twitter.com/Z7LJLICzX2
More excitement. This is probably the result of a type 1a supernova. Here's my research assistant on type 1a supernovae.
A Type Ia supernova is a catastrophic stellar explosion that occurs in a binary star system when a white dwarf accretes enough mass from its companion star (typically a red giant or another main-sequence star) to reach the Chandrasekhar limit of approximately 1.4 solar masses.
At this critical mass, electron degeneracy pressure can no longer support the white dwarf against gravity, triggering a runaway thermonuclear fusion reaction that rapidly converts carbon and oxygen into heavier elements like iron and nickel.
This process completely disrupts the white dwarf, releasing an immense amount of energy—equivalent to billions of Suns—and producing a highly luminous outburst that can briefly outshine an entire galaxy.
Because Type Ia supernovae have remarkably consistent peak luminosities, they serve as reliable "standard candles" for astronomers to measure vast cosmic distances and study the expansion of the universe.
Cosmic beauty born from destruction: DEM L249 is a supernova remnant in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy orbiting the Milky Way. It likely formed when a white dwarf in a binary system erupted as a Type Ia supernov
— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) July 10, 2026
(Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Y. Chu) pic.twitter.com/mHDkSIDuIA
A galaxy cluster in multiple frequencies. Notice it's a galaxy cluster — those are mainly galaxies, not mere stars. You can see a lot of gravitational lensing as well. Yeah, I know it's not strictly a nebula, but there are lots and lots of nebulae in the picture.
It takes telescope teamwork to get the full picture of ZwCl 0024+1652!
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) July 10, 2026
This galaxy cluster is located about 9.5 million light-years away. The glowing blue and red light here shows data from Hubble and @ChandraXRay ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ktd6DXgTDt
This is a planetary nebula, something that always seems to make for a spectacular picture. Now, a planetary nebula is also the remnant of an exploding star. These are different from the Wolf-Rayet stars because a Wolf-Rayet star is a very massive star that has repeated explosions from its surface, working its way toward a supernova, while planetary nebulae come from much smaller stars that basically exploded once.
✨ The "Exposed Skull" Captured by James Webb
— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) July 10, 2026
The James Webb Space Telescope has imaged the nebula PMR 1. Its unique, almost eerie structure has earned it the unofficial nickname "Exposed Skull." This is not merely a beautiful image, but data on star formation and evolution. pic.twitter.com/T0kIXToVcq
A stellar nursery in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the galaxy right next door.
Like bright fireworks, blue and white stars shine against a red background of glowing gas in this new Hubble image of LH 95. 🎆
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) July 3, 2026
LH 95 is a star-forming region within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that orbits our Milky Way: https://t.co/u8iroV16Qx pic.twitter.com/I1a4lsrLPu
A closer star-forming nebula.
It is being worn away by the scorching light of nearby stars, but also pushed apart from within, as infant stars buried inside it fire off jets of gas. These can be seen streaming from the nebula’s peaks like arrows through the air 🏹
— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) July 9, 2026
Read more: https://t.co/kAnLSJNfR4
📷 @NASA…
And another stellar nursery. I don't think we're going to run out of stars very soon.
This striking image of the giant galactic nebula NGC 3603 presents several phases of the stellar life cycle all at once.
— Universal-Sci (@universal_sci) July 9, 2026
(Credit: NASA, Wolfgang Brandner JPL-IPAC, Eva K.) pic.twitter.com/Jc7d7S4zpz
We sometimes forget that there are dark nebulae as well. Here's a great image of one.
A silhouette in the stars: Dark nebulae are vast clouds of gas and dust that block the light behind them, creating striking cosmic shadows like LDN 1165 in this beautiful Hubble image.
— World and Science (@WorldAndScience) July 8, 2026
(Credit: NASA, ESA, T. Megeath, K. Stapelfeldt, Gladys Kober) pic.twitter.com/HR9kb0fJat
I suppose I missed an opportunity by not using "Sky Candy: It's a Gas" as a title.
But there's always next week, when there will be a new Sky Candy. See you then.
(Well, I won't really see you, but you know what I mean.)
