The Boomerang Nebula is 5,000 light-years from Earth. It has a cloud of dust and gas that are being spit out into space from a central star. Scientists call this bipolar outflow. They believe that over the last 1,500 years, almost one and a half times the mass of our Sun has been lost by the central star in this outflow. Bipolar outflows are seen from very young stars called protostars, that are still forming and from old stars near the ends of their lives that have become red giants. The Boomerang nebula is believed to be one of those old red giants.
