N44C: A Nebular Mystery . ... Hubble Heritage Team , NASA Explanation: Why is N44C glowing so strangely? The star that appears to powers the nebula, although young and bright, does not seem hot enough to create some of the colors observed. ... One hypothesis is that the known central star has a neutron star companion in a very wide orbit . Hot X-rays might only then be emitted during brief periods when the neutron star nears the known star and crashes through a disk of surrounding gas . ...