Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton, J. Toalá & D. Goldman
The image shows the highly intricate structure of the Crescent Nebula that shed a shell of substance as it expanded into a red giant nearly 200,000 years ago. Fast winds emitted more recently have now collided with that material, this is now causing the gasses in the bubble to emit X-rays and heat up, this can be seen with the blue in the image.
Other features can equally be seen, such as the green hue, generated by oxygen atoms, where the star’s wind is interacting with the surrounding interstellar medium.
Density dissimilarity in the surrounding material may give rise to the different arrangement, such as the extended bubble segment located near the top right.
This star will likely end its life in a violent supernova explosion!