NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble telescope captured a rare photo of the Calabash Nebula, a protoplanetary nebula formed from a dying star that's 1.4 light years long and approximately 5,000 light years from Earth.

"This image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the star going through a rapid transformation from a red giant to a planetary nebula, during which it blows its outer layers of gas and dust out into the surrounding space," the ESA said last week. "The recently ejected material is spat out in opposite directions with immense speed the gas shown in yellow is moving close to a million kilometers an hour."

A protoplanetary nebula is an astronomical object that occurs during a star's transition between its late asymptotic giant branch phase and the planetary nebula phase.

The Calabash Nebula is also called the Rotten Egg Nebula due to its sulphur content, which smells like rotten eggs when it comes into contact with other elements.

The photo is especially rare because the phase occurs in an instant, at least by astronomical standards. Scientists predict the nebula will evolve into a planetary nebula over the next thousand years.

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NASA Hubble telescope captures 'Rotten Egg' nebula - KCRA Sacramento