This unusual image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the star U Camelopardalis, or U Cam for short. U Cam is an example of a carbon star, a rare type of star whose atmosphere contains more carbon than oxygen. As it nears the end of it life, it becomes unstable and, every few 1000 years, coughs out a spherical shell of gas – its latest eruption is visible here. U Cam itself is much smaller than it appears in Hubble’s picture (it would easily fit within a single pixel at the centre of the image, but its brightness is enough to overwhelm the capability of Hubble’s camera). See https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1227a/
