Hubble captures clearest view of the “Egg” in Cygnus: light beams reveal final stages of a Sun-like star
The Hubble Space Telescope, a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), released a new, extremely detailed image of the so-called Egg Nebula (CRL 2688) in the constellation Cygnus on February 10, 2026, with NASA issuing its own statement the same week. This is a rare and short-lived transitional stage in the dying of a Sun-like star, in which the discarded layers of gas and dust are just beginning to organize into a structure that will later become a planetary nebula. At this moment, the Egg Nebula does not shine with its own emission of ionized gas like many well-known planetary nebulae, but is primarily “seen” thanks to reflected light from the central star breaking through openings in the thick dust.
The new Hubble composition, obtained by combining data from a 2012 imaging program with additional observations from the same program, shows a fine interplay of light and shadow in the dusty envelope and emphasizes orderly, almost symmetrical patterns of arcs and jets. This very regularity, according to explanations from NASA and the ESA/Hubble team, suggests that this is not an explosive event like a supernova, but a series of coordinated ejections of material from the star’s carbon-enriched interior, the mechanisms of which are not yet fully understood.
Where the Egg Nebula is located and why it is special
The Egg Nebula is located approximately 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus, and is also listed in catalogs as CRL 2688. In the Hubble image, the center of the object is occupied by a darker, opaque oval “cocoon” of dust that hides the star itself, creating a visual association with a yolk hidden in the “egg white.” Light still finds its way out: through a polar opening – which is compared to an “eye” in official descriptions – part of the radiation escapes the enclosed envelope and illuminates the outer layers.
The Egg Nebula carries additional weight in astronomy because, according to ESA, it was the first, youngest, and closest pre-planetary nebula ever discovered. A pre-planetary nebula is a transitional stage between the late phase of a red giant and the creation of a planetary nebula: the star discards its outer layers, and the exposed core gradually heats up. Only when the core becomes hot enough to ionize the surrounding gas do the brilliant, “neon” shells appear, such as those seen in famous examples of planetary nebulae. In the Egg Nebula, that moment has not yet arrived, so observations offer a rare opportunity to study the material ejection process while the tracks are “fresh.”
Light “searchlights” and traces of hidden companions
One of the most striking elements in the new Hubble image is two powerful, narrow beams of light emerging from both sides of the dusty disk and piercing outward, like cosmic searchlights. These beams illuminate faster polar lobes that “penetrate” through a slower, older series of concentric arcs – similar to tree rings in a cross-section, except here the layers represent episodes of gas and dust ejection.
NASA and ESA/Hubble point out that the shapes and motions of the structures suggest a possible gravitational interaction with one or more invisible companion stars. Such companions could be buried deep within the thick dust disk, making direct observation impossible, but their influence can be “read” from the geometry of the jets, the symmetry axes, and the distribution of material. In other words: within the orderliness that Hubble sees, the signature of a dynamic “dance” of multiple bodies may be hidden.
How planetary nebulae are formed – and where the Egg Nebula fits in
Stars with a mass similar to the Sun spend most of their lives converting hydrogen into helium in their core. When this “supply” is exhausted, the star undergoes complex changes: it expands into a red giant, and later, in phases with pulses and strong stellar winds, it begins to discard its outer layers. This discarded material forms a shell of gas and dust around the star. In the finale, the core is exposed and continues to heat up. When it becomes hot enough, its ultraviolet radiation ionizes the discarded gas, which then glows – and a planetary nebula is born.
Planetary nebulae, despite the name, have nothing to do with planets: the historical name dates back to the era of telescopes when they appeared through the eyepiece as tiny, disk-like objects. Today, they are important because they return elements and dust created in stellar interiors to interstellar space, thereby “feeding” future generations of stars and planetary systems. In this context, the Egg Nebula represents a particularly short “window of time” – a pre-planetary phase that lasts only a few thousand years – in which it can be tracked exactly how material leaves the star, how it organizes into disks, arcs, and jets, and how gravity and magnetic fields shape it.
Why symmetry is not accidental: orderly arcs instead of a chaotic explosion
When astronomers observe supernova remnants, they often encounter irregular, scattered structures: the explosion is violent and asymmetrical, and shock waves shape the environment chaotically. With the Egg Nebula, the picture is different. Recurring, concentric arcs and relatively regular polar protrusions are noticeable, which, according to NASA and the ESA/Hubble team, makes an explosion scenario unlikely. Instead, the emphasis is on “sputtering” events – a series of less-understood ejections of material from the star, likely related to processes in the carbon-rich core and envelope dynamics.
Such cyclic discharges can create “rings” and arcs, while directed jets can punch holes in the dust and create channels through which light then exits. Hubble’s high resolution is crucial here: tiny details in the dusty shell, visible as slight ripples and differences in brightness, can be compared with earlier images to measure changes over time.
Hubble’s multi-decade “tracking” of the Egg Nebula
Although the new image is presented as the clearest view yet, Hubble has been returning to the Egg Nebula for decades, building a sort of time series. According to official descriptions, the first visible image was taken with the WFPC2 instrument, and in 1997 it was supplemented with near-infrared observations by the NICMOS camera, which helped “peer” through part of the dust and better understand the distribution of light. In 2003, the ACS instrument gave a broader insight into the wavy dust structures around the center, while in 2012, WFC3 “zoomed in” on the central part, highlighting dramatic outbursts of gas and dust.
The latest composition uses the data from which the 2012 image was made but supplements them with additional observations from the same program. This, as ESA/Hubble points out, provides material that can be directly compared with earlier images, so changes in small structures can be tracked on a decadal time scale. Such an approach increases scientific value: it is not just a “pretty picture,” but a tool for testing models of how planetary nebulae form and how stellar matter outbursts develop.
What the Egg Nebula tells us about the origin of cosmic dust and “planetary material”
Popular depictions of the universe often point out that “all heavier elements were created in stars.” In the case of Sun-like stars, an important part of the story is not an explosion, but a long-term, gradual enrichment of the surroundings with dust and gas. In the description of the new image, NASA reminds us that old stars like this created and ejected dust that later participated in the creation of new star systems, including ours. According to standard geological and planetary estimates, the solar system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, and material from previous generations of stars was part of that mixture.
The Egg Nebula is therefore more than an “exotic object”: it is a laboratory for understanding how dust, crucial for the formation of rocky planets, is even ejected from the star and how it mixes with the interstellar medium. In it, traces of slower, older ejections (concentric arcs) and faster, newer outbursts (polar lobes) can be seen at the same time. Such a “layered record” helps reconstruct the history of stellar pulsations and changes.
An international project lasting decades
Hubble has been operating for more than three decades, and ESA/Hubble cites more than 35 years of operations, making it unique among observatories for its continuity and data quality. The mission is shaped by international cooperation between NASA and ESA: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope and mission operations, with support from Lockheed Martin Space, while the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore conducts scientific operations for NASA.
It is precisely this system, with a long-term archive and the ability to return to the same targets, that allows stories like this: an object that changes on a scale of hundreds or thousands of years can, thanks to decades of consistent observations, be observed in “slow motion.” The Egg Nebula remains one of the most vivid scenes of that transition – a moment in which a Sun-like star, hidden in its own dust, still illuminates its surroundings with reflected light, while slowly preparing for the next act: ionization and the creation of a full planetary nebula.
Sources:- NASA Science (Hubble) – official press release and description of the new Egg Nebula composition, including the context of the pre-planetary phase and mission data (link)- ESA/Hubble – release heic2604 with explanation of structures, possible companions, and comparison with earlier observations (link)- European Space Agency (ESA) – multimedia page with image data, object description, and credits (link)
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