 This nebula forms a winding blue cloud that perfectly aligns with two stars at its center. In 1999 astronomers discovered that the star at the upper right is in fact the central star of the nebula. And the star to the lower left is probably a true physical companion of the central star. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this beautiful planetary nebula with glowing wisps of outpouring gas that are lit up by a central star nearing the end of its life. The vivid red and blue hues in this image come from the material glowing under the action of the fierce ultraviolet radiation from the still hot central star. Planetary nebula are one of the main ways in which elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are dispersed into space after their creation in the hearts of stars. Eventually some of this ejected material may form new stars and planets. The necklace nebula consists of a bright ring measuring 19 trillion kilometers across that's 12 trillion miles dotted with dense bright knots of gas that resemble diamonds in a necklace. The knots glow brightly due to absorption of ultraviolet light from the central stars. Although most stars go through this process, only a few can be seen in the Milky Way. This is because over a relatively short time, a few million years, the ejected gases get so far away from the star that they no longer fluoresce or reflect light from the central dying star. Then all we have are the white dwarfs. Our sun will end its life as one of these planetary nebulas. The whole images show that our sun's fate probably will be more interesting, complex, and striking than astronomers imagined just a few years ago. But not until several billion years from now.