Other uses include rocket nozzles and orbital-welder gas shrouds.

The gases are usually blown through a top lance (oxygen only) and tuyeres in the sides/bottom (oxygen with an inert gas shroud).

But new observations by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud around an old, dying, sun-like star reveal a new twist.

When the explosion finally occurred some 12 million years ago, the supernova hurled a shock wave outward, which soon reached the outer limit of the gas shroud produced by the solar wind, and then bounced back.

Astronomers of the Hubble Heritage Project produced this strikingly sharp image from Hubble Space Telescope observations using natural appearing colours to indicate the temperature of the stellar gas shroud.

Yet in a new twist, latest images taken by Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope of the glowing gas shroud reveal it looks more like a jelly doughnut because it's filled with 'material in the middle.'