Gomez's Hamburger: A Proto Planetary Nebula

What, in heaven, is that? Sometimes astronomers see things on the sky they don't immediately understand . In 1985 this happened to Arturo Gomez , and the object became known as Gomez's Hamburger for its distinctive yet familiar shape. After some investigation, the object was identified as a proto-planetary nebula , a gas cloud emitted by a Sun -like star just after its central hydrogen fuel has all been fused to helium . Gomez's Hamburger is on its way to becoming a full-fledged planetary nebula in a few thousand years. The light seen (the bun) is reflected by dust from the central star, although the star itself is obscured by a thick dust disk that runs across the middle (the patty). Gomez's Hamburger , pictured above in a recent image from the Hubble Space Telescope , is only a fraction of a light year across but located approximately 10,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius .