Star death. Colored Hubble Space Telescope (HST) image of the Egg Nebula, also known as CRL2688. The nebula is a set of concentric "shells" of gas ejected at about 20 km/sec by a red giant star close to the end of its life. This mass-ejection lasts for about 10,000 years; the "shells" reveal variation in mass-ejection rates over periods of 100 to 500 years. The bright "searchlights" are either conical jets of material being emitted from the central star, or may be intense beams of light escaping from holes in the thick disc of dust surrounding the star (dark diagonal bar at center). This image was made in red light.