How do airplanes fly? An aerospace engineer explains the physics of flight 
If life exists on Jupiter’s moon Europa, scientists might soon be able to detect it 
Spacesuits need a major upgrade for the next phase of exploration 
Dark matter: our new experiment aims to turn the ghostly substance into actual light 
Genetic diseases: How scientists are working to make DNA repair (almost) a piece of cake 
Why is the universe ripping itself apart? A new study of exploding stars shows dark energy may be more complicated than we thought 
Why now is the time to address humanity’s impact on the moon 
Black hole, neutron star or something new? We discovered an object that defies explanation 
A Nasa rover has reached a promising place to search for fossilised life on Mars 
Could a telescope ever see the beginning of time? An astronomer explains 
Our survey of the sky is uncovering the secrets of how planets are born 
Orbital resonance − the striking gravitational dance done by planets with aligning orbits 
The mystery of consciousness shows there may be a limit to what science alone can achieve 
The Mars Sample Return mission has a shaky future, and NASA is calling on private companies for backup 
The rising flood of space junk is a risk to us on Earth – and governments are on the hook 
Christmas is celebrated on Earth, but it does not mean that the phenomena seen up in space are not in on the fun too. Recently, NASA shared photos of festive-looking nebula found in deep space.
The space agency, as Express reports, released some festive-looking images taken by the Hubble space telescope in deep space. One photo of a large cloud of colorful gas set against a backdrop of millions of glittering stars resembled a holiday ornament. The Hubble astronomers described the images as a “glass-blown holiday ornament wrapped in a ribbon.” The astronomers referred to this as NGC 5189 and is a planetary nebula - A large cloud of ionized gas that comes from a dying star about the size of the sun.
If the star is not big enough to go supernova or collapse into itself in a black hole, it will become a red giant, and then a white dwarf in its last stages. When it turns into a red giant, it leaves a cloud of gas and as it turns into a white dwarf, the star can be seen in the heart of the nebula. However, the name is something of a misnomer as planetary nebulae are named such for their round shape.
In the case of NGC 5189, this nebula is not as round and is more on the “knotty filamentary” side. According to NASA, the unusual shape of this nebula is likely caused by another star disrupting a red giant with enough gravity for the nebula to have this kind of shape. However, that has yet to be explained even further.
But NGC 5189 is not the only unusually shaped space phenomena that NASA has seen. Daily Mail reports that the space agency has also captured a structure resembling a candy cane located within the Milky Way galaxy. The space candy cane measures 190 light-years and is made up of a long set of thin ionized strands of gas referred to as filaments that produce radio waves.
The most prominent filament is in the Radio Arc which is in the galactic center and is the straight portion of the arc. According to scientists, these filaments delineate the edges of a large bubble produced by an energetic event at the galactic center.
