Starship Asterisk*

Oh, oh, dirty sensor! Many need to send up the space shuttle for a cleaning ...

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090825.html

Does anyone 'out there' understand the structure of the image, that is, what is star and what is the gas plume? I'd assume the face of the star was the white ball in the center, but it strikes me as too large, even for a very large telescope.

C Wm Davis