News Astronomy

A nebula’s X-ray glow may come from a destroyed giant planet

X-ray emission could offer a way to explore the cataclysmic final chapters of planets

image of Helix Nebula

In the Helix Nebula, X-rays (blue in this composite false-color image) from a white dwarf at the center (not visible) heat a surrounding envelope of dust and gas (yellow).

JPL-Caltech/NASA

By Robin George Andrews

Read another version of this article at Science News Explores

The decades-long mystery of a never-ending explosion of X-rays around the remains of a dead star may have finally been solved.