Hubble Captures Gomez’s Hamburger in Final Stellar Act

Deep in the constellation Sagittarius, 6,500 light-years from Earth, a dying Sun-like star has shed its outer layers to form a celestial curiosity. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope recently captured the object, famously dubbed Gomez’s Hamburger, as it transitions into a vibrant planetary nebula.

The image, rendered by the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, reveals a structure defined by light and shadow. Two glowing lobes, resembling buns, emerge from light reflecting off expelled gas, while a dense, dark central band mimics a patty. Astronomers identify this dark strip as a thick disk of material viewed edge-on, which effectively conceals the central star from direct observation.

Researchers remain puzzled by the disk's unusual density. One prevailing theory suggests the system may host a binary star pair. In this scenario, the rapidly rotating primary star would have ejected its mass primarily from equatorial regions, carving out the distinctive, flattened structure that persists in the void today.