Astronomy Picture of the Day . ... Hot gas dances across the surface of the Sun in this picture from the orbiting TRACE satellite. ... Shapley 1: An Annular Planetary Nebula . ... The center condenses into a white dwarf while the outer atmospheric layers are expelled into space and appear as a planetary nebula. ... Infrared Horsehead . ... The false-color picture shows the bright infrared emission from dust and molecular gas in part of the Orion star forming region surrounding the Horsehead Nebula. ...