Overview
- The newly released view merges recent WFC3 observations with earlier Hubble data to deliver the highest-resolution image of CRL 2688 to date.
- The Egg Nebula lies about 1,000 light-years away in Cygnus and is caught in the rare, brief pre-planetary phase that precedes a planetary nebula.
- A dense, recently expelled dusty disk hides the central star, with starlight escaping through a polar opening to illuminate lobes and concentric arcs.
- The ordered arcs and twin polar beams are attributed to coordinated sputtering events in the star’s carbon-rich core and may indicate buried companion stars.
- Comparisons across Hubble’s 1997–2012–2026 images will help refine models of how Sun-like stars eject material and sculpt their surrounding shells.