Liste planetarischer Nebel

Again, I used data from the WF chips in combination with the PC chip data in order to create a slightly more complete view of a nebula. As usual, I’d still like if it were not cut off on the side, but you learn to take what you can get. :)

Red: hst_07501_09_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci + hst_07501_09_wfpc2_f658n_wf_sci Green: hst_07501_09_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_07501_09_wfpc2_f555w_wf_sci Blue: hst_08773_08_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci + hst_07501_09_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci + hst_08773_08_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci

Can't sleep, black holes will eat me...

Red: hst_08773_02_wfpc2_f658n_pc_drz Green: hst_07501_02_wfpc2_f555w_pc_drz Blue: hst_08773_02_wfpc2_f502n_pc_drz

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman RC Optical Systems Telescope
   Camera            SBIG STx16803 CCD Camera
   Filters           AstroDon Generation II
   Dates             March 2016
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          RGB = 4 : 4 : 4 Hours
   Acquisition       Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen), AStronomer Control Panel (DC3- Dreams)
   Processing        CCDStack,PixInsight
   Credit Line and Copyright        Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona 

Iridescent Glory of Nearby Helix Nebula.

About the Object

• Object Name: Helix Nebula, NGC 7293
• Object Description: Planetary Nebula
• Position (J2000): R.A. 22h 29m 48.20s

Dec. -20° 49' 26.0"

• Constellation: Aquarius
• Distance: About 650 light-years (200 parsecs)
• Dimensions: The image is roughly 27 arcminutes (5.1 light-years or 1.6 parsecs) across.

About the Data

• Data Description: Hubble data have been superimposed onto ground-based data taken by Travis Rector (NRAO) at the 0.9 meter telescope located on Kitt Peak, Tucson, AZ (NOAO/AURA/NSF). The HST data are from proposal 9700. Processed images may be obtained from the Helix MAST web site. The Hubble Helix Team includes M. Meixner, H.E. Bond, G. Chapman (STScI), Y.-H. Chu (U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), P. Cox (Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, France), W. Crothers, L.M. Frattare, R.Gilliland (STScI), M. Guerrero R. Gruendl (U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), F. Hamilton, (STScI), R.Hook (STScI/ESO), P. Huggins (New York Univ.), I. Jordan, C.D. Keyes, A. Koekemoer (STScI), K.Kwitter (Williams College), Z.G. Levay, P.R. McCullough, M. Mutchler, K. Noll (STScI), C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt Univ.), N. Panagia, M. Reinhart, M. Robberto, K. Sahu, D. Soderblom, L. Stanghellini, C. Tyler, J. Valenti, A. Welty, R. Williams (STScI).
• Instrument: ACS/WFC Mosaic I Camera on KPNO 0.9m telescope
• Exposure Date(s): November 19, 2002 November 3, 2001
• Exposure Time: 4.5 hours 25 minutes
• Filters: F502N ([O III]), F658N (H alpha) k1009 (H alpha), k1014 ([O III])

This week’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features an impressive portrait of M1-63, a beautifully captured example of a bipolar planetary nebula located in the constellation of Scutum (the Shield). A nebula like this one is formed when the star at its centre sheds huge quantities of material from its outer layers, leaving behind a spectacular cloud of gas and dust.

It is believed that a binary system of stars at the centre of the bipolar nebula is capable of creating hourglass or butterfly-like shapes like the one in this image. This is because the material from the shedding star is funnelled towards its poles, with the help of the companion, creating the distinctive double-lobed structure seen in nebulae such as M1-63.

Coordinates
Position (RA):  	18 51 30.96
Position (Dec): 	-13° 10' 37.07"
Field of view:  	0.32 x 0.32 arcminutes
Orientation:    	North is 47.7° left of vertical

Colours & filters Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Optical Clear   	200 nm   	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical Long pass 	350 nm   	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical O III   	502 nm   	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical I       	814 nm   	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman Telescope (RC Optical Systems)
   Camera            SBIG STX and STL CCD Cameras
   Filters           AstroDon Gen II
   Dates             October 20th - 23rd 2011
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          RGB = 140:140:140 minutes
   Acquisition       ACP Observatory Control Software (DC-3 Dreams),TheSky (Software Bisque), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen)
   Processing        CCDStack (CCDWare), Photoshop CS5 (Adobe)
   Guest Astronomers:                   Participants of the "Astrophotography with Adam" program 10/20/2011

Odd pair of aging stars sculpt spectacular shape of planetary nebula

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope have discovered a pair of stars orbiting each other at the centre of one of the most remarkable examples of a planetary nebula. The new result confirms a long-debated theory about what controls the spectacular and symmetric appearance of the material flung out into space. The results are published in the 9 November 2012 issue of the journal Science.

Planetary nebulae [1] are glowing shells of gas around white dwarfs — Sun-like stars in the final stages of their lives. Fleming 1 is a beautiful example that has strikingly symmetric jets [2] that weave into knotty, curved patterns. It is located in the southern constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur) and was discovered just over a century ago by Williamina Fleming [3], a former maid who was hired by Harvard College Observatory after showing an aptitude for astronomy.

Astronomers have long debated how these symmetric jets could be created, but no consensus has been reached. Now, a research team led by Henri Boffin (ESO, Chile) has combined new Very Large Telescope (VLT) observations of Fleming 1 with existing computer modelling to explain in detail for the first time how these bizarre shapes came about.

The team used ESO’s VLT to study the light coming from the central star. They found that Fleming 1 is likely to have not one but two white dwarfs at its centre, circling each other every 1.2 days. Although binary stars have been found at the hearts of planetary nebulae before, systems with two white dwarfs orbiting each other are very rare [4].

“The origin of the beautiful and intricate shapes of Fleming 1 and similar objects has been controversial for many decades,” says Henri Boffin. “Astronomers have suggested a binary star before, but it was always thought that in this case the pair would be well separated, with an orbital period of tens of years or longer. Thanks to our models and observations, which let us examine this unusual system in great detail and peer right into the heart of the nebula, we found the pair to be several thousand times closer.”

When a star with a mass up to eight times that of the Sun approaches the end of its life, it blows off its outer shells and begins to lose mass. This allows the hot, inner core of the star to radiate strongly, causing this outward-moving cocoon of gas to glow brightly as a planetary nebula.

While stars are spherical, many of these planetary nebulae are strikingly complex, with knots, filaments, and intense jets of material forming intricate patterns. Some of the most spectacular nebulae — including Fleming 1 — present point-symmetric structures [5]. For this planetary nebula it means that the material appears to shoot from both poles of the central region in S-shaped flows. This new study shows that these patterns for Fleming 1 are the result of the close interaction between a pair of stars — the surprising swansong of a stellar couple.

“This is the most comprehensive case yet of a binary central star for which simulations have correctly predicted how it shaped the surrounding nebula — and in a truly spectacular fashion,” explains co-author Brent Miszalski, from SAAO and SALT (South Africa).

The pair of stars in the middle of this nebula is vital to explain its observed structure. As the stars aged, they expanded, and for part of this time, one acted as a stellar vampire, sucking material from its companion. This material then flowed in towards the vampire, encircling it with a disc known as an accretion disc [6]. As the two stars orbited one another, they both interacted with this disc and caused it to behave like a wobbling spinning top — a type of motion called precession. This movement affects the behaviour of any material that has been pushed outwards from the poles of the system, such as outflowing jets. This study now confirms that precessing accretion discs within binary systems cause the stunningly symmetric patterns around planetary nebulae like Fleming 1.

The deep images from the VLT have also led to the discovery of a knotted ring of material within the inner nebula. Such a ring of material is also known to exist in other families of binary systems, and appears to be a telltale signature of the presence of a stellar couple.

“Our results bring further confirmation of the role played by interaction between pairs of stars to shape, and perhaps even form, planetary nebulae,” concludes Boffin. Notes

[1] Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. The name arose in the eighteenth century as some of these objects resembled the discs of the distant planets when seen through small telescopes.

[2] Jets are outflows of very fast-moving gas that are ejected from the core regions of planetary nebulae. They are often collimated — the material comes out in parallel streams — meaning that they spread out only very slightly as they propagate through space.

[3] Fleming 1 is named after Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming, who discovered it in 1910. Initially working as a maid to the director of the Harvard College Observatory in the 1880s, Fleming was later hired to process astronomical data at the observatory as one of the Harvard Computers, a group of skilled female workers carrying out mathematical calculations and clerical work. During her time she discovered — and was credited for — numerous astronomical objects, including 59 gaseous nebulae, over 310 variable stars, and 10 novae. This object also has many other names, including PN G290.5+07.9, ESO 170-6 and Hen 2-66.

[4] The team studied the stars using the FORS instrument on the Very Large Telescope at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. As well as taking images of the object they also split the light up into its component colours to obtain information about the motions as well as the temperature and chemical composition of the central object.

The primary and secondary stars were found to have approximately 0.5 to 0.86 and 0.7 to 1.0 times the mass of the Sun, respectively. The team was able to rule out the possibility of there being a “normal” star like our Sun in the binary by analysing the light from the two stars, and studying the system’s brightness. As the system rotates its brightness only changes by tiny amounts. A normal star would have been heated by its hot white dwarf, and because it would be always presenting the same face to its companion (as the Moon does with the Earth), it would present a “hot and luminous” and “cold and dark” side, easily seen as a regular variation in brightness. The central object is thus very likely a pair of white dwarfs — a rare and exotic find.

[5] In this case each part of the nebula has an exact counterpart at the same distance from the star, but in the opposite direction — the kind of symmetry shown by the court cards in a conventional pack of playing cards.

[6] Such a disc is formed when the stream of material escaping from a star overflows a certain boundary, known as the Roche lobe. Within this lobe, all matter is bound to its host star by gravity and cannot escape. When this lobe fills up and the boundary is exceeded, mass tumbles away from the star and transfers to a nearby body, for example the second star in a binary system, forming an accretion disc. More information

This research was presented in a paper “An Interacting Binary System Powers Precessing Outflows of an Evolved Star”, H. M. J. Boffin et al., to appear in the journal Science on 9 November 2012.

The team is composed of H. M. J. Boffin (European Southern Observatory, Chile), B. Miszalski (South African Astronomical Observatory; Southern African Large Telescope Foundation, South Africa), T. Rauch (Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Tübingen, Germany), D. Jones (European Southern Observatory, Chile), R. L. M. Corradi (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias; Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Spain), R. Napiwotzki (University of Hertfordshire, United Kingdom), A. C. Day-Jones (Universidad de Chile, Chile), and J. Köppen (Observatoire de Strasbourg, France).

To obtain a copy of the Science paper please contact the Science Press Package office at either scipak@aaas.org (email), or +1 202 326 6440 (phone).

The year 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the European Southern Observatory (ESO). ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Credit:

ESO

About the Image

Id:	eso1244a
Type:	Observation
Release date:	8 November 2012, 20:00
Related releases:	eso1244
Size:	1382 x 592 px

About the Object

Name:	Fleming 1, PN G290.5+07.9
Type:	• Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
• Nebulae
Distance:	10000 light years

Colours & filters Band Wavelength Telescope

Optical H-alpha + [NII] 	660 nm 	Very Large Telescope FORS2
Optical [OIII] 	504 nm 	Very Large Telescope FORS2
Optical [OII] 	378 nm 	Very Large Telescope FORS2

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman Telescope (RC Optical Systems), Acquired remotely
   Camera            SBIG STX 16803 CCD Camera
   Filters           AstroDon Gen II
   Dates             March - April 2014
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          LRGB = 7:3:3:3 Hours
   Acquisition       ACP Observatory Control Software (DC-3 Dreams), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen), FlatMan XL (Alnitak)
   Processing        CCDStack (CCDWare), Photoshop CC (Adobe), PixInsight
   Credit Line and Copyright        Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona 

One of the three planetary nebulas discovered by M. L. Humason during his time at the Mount Wilson Observatory. Any aspiring astronomer should read that short Wiki article at the link.

Here, the swirling, vaguely symmetrical nebula is seen in detail with two narrowband filters (F658N & F656N). The broad, blueish dots arranged in the X shape are simply diffuse diffraction spikes and are not part of the nebula itself. The central star is just discernible.

The image has been enlarged 200% from its original size.

These data were collected for Proposal 6347, A Search for Jets in Planetary Nebulae

Red: hst_06347_08_wfpc2_f658n_pc_drz Green: Pseudo Blue: hst_06347_09_wfpc2_f656n_pc_drz

Sorry it's cut off on the lower edge. That's just how things are. Some interesting tidbits are written about it in its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_3195" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article</a>. Apparently it's approaching our position. Or perhaps we are approaching it. Either way, the distance between us and NGC 3195 is lessening over time.

Red: hst_06119_16_wfpc2_f814w_pc_sci + hst_06119_16_wfpc2_f814w_wf_sci Green: Pseudo Blue: hst_06119_16_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_06119_16_wfpc2_f555w_wf_sci

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-290 is an ancient planetary nebula. A planetary nebula is created when a low-mass star blows off its outer layers at the end of its life. Sh2-290 is one of the largest known planetary nebulae, with a diameter of about 7 parsecs. The bluish interior is from energized oxygen atoms. The bright side of the nebula is due to its interaction with ambient interstellar gas. The image was generated with observations in Hydrogen-alpha (red) , Sulphur [SII] (cyan) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.

Credit:

Aufnahme des Planetarischen Nebels NGC 40 mit einer Webcam an einem 14" SCT Autor: Klaus Hohmann

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman Telescope
   Camera            SBIG STx 16803 CCD Camera
   Filters           AstroDon GenII
   Dates             May 2013
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          (L)RGB = 3:3:3 Hours
   Acquisition       TheSky (Software Bisque), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen), ACP (DC3 Dreams)
   Processing        CCDStack (CCDWare), Maxim DL (Cyanogen), Photoshop CS5 (Adobe), PixInsight

PK 104-29.1, also known as "Jones 1", is a very faint, ghostlike planetary nebula in the constellation of Pegasus. This image was taken at the Mayall telescope with the Mosaic camera, with [OIII] (assigned a blue color) and H-alpha (orange) filters. In the image North is up and East is to the left. Imaged August 28, 2009.

Credit:

The Red Rectangle Nebula. An excellent example of a bipolar nebula and a planetary/protoplanetary nebula.

Sourced from:

NASA: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040513.html and http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0405/redrect_hst_full.jpg

ESA: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHBNGHZTD_FeatureWeek_0.html and http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/spcs/hubble/hubble20040511a.tiff

Hubble: http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/11/ and http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2004/11/images/a/formats/print.jpg

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Lizenz

This file is in the public domain because it was created by NASA and ESA. NASA Hubble material (and ESA Hubble material prior to 2009) is copyright-free and may be freely used as in the public domain without fee, on the condition that only NASA, STScI, and/or ESA is credited as the source of the material. This license does not apply if ESA material created after 2008 or source material from other organizations is in use. The material was created for NASA by Space Telescope Science Institute under Contract NAS5-26555, or for ESA by the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre. Copyright statement at hubblesite.org or 2008 copyright statement at spacetelescope.org. For material created by the European Space Agency on the spacetelescope.org site since 2009, use the {{ESA-Hubble}} tag.

External Links

• Red Rectangle at ESA/Hubble

(Color mix altered)

Blue/Green=Hydrogen alpha;

Red=[O III] 5007;

Blue=6100 Angstrom continuum (just shows the stars).

Inside IRAS 22036+5306 lies an aged star that has coughed off almost all of its outer material, forming a cloud in space. Hidden under this veil, the dense, still-burning, exposed core of the star grows hotter. Encircling the star is a torus consisting partly of castoff material, as well as possibly the grainy remnants of comets and other small, rocky bodies. Twin jets spout from the star’s poles and pierce this dusty waist. The jets contain gobbets of material — typically about ten thousand times the mass of the Earth — hurling outwards at a speed of nearly 800 000 kilometres per hour.

IRAS 22036+5306 is making the transition through the protoplanetary, or preplanetary, nebula phase. Only a few hundred such nebulae have been spotted in our galaxy. For now, light from the central star is merely being reflected off its expelled gaseous shell. Soon, however, the star will become a very hot, white dwarf, and its intense ultraviolet radiation will ionise the blown-off gas, making it glow in rich colours. IRAS 22036+5306 will have then blossomed into a fully-fledged planetary nebula, and this event will serve as a last hurrah before the star starts its very slow final cool-down.

Planetary nebulae are much longer-lived than their precursors, protoplanetary nebulae, and are therefore more commonly spotted. The term planetary nebula is a leftover from observations through small telescopes made by early astronomers to whom some of these objects looked circular and similar in appearance to the outer planets Uranus and Neptune.

IRAS 22036+5306 is found about 6500 light-years away in the constellation of Cepheus (The King). Studying rarities such as IRAS 22036+5306 provides astronomers with a window into the short and poorly understood phase of stellar evolution when bloated red giant stars pare down to small white dwarfs. For example, mysteries remain about how exactly the dusty torus and jets form. The planetary nebula phase is thought to be the fate that awaits most medium-sized stars, including our Sun. But it is not clear that our star will make such a fuss on its way out — the star that generated all the gaseous splendour of IRAS 22036+5306 is reckoned to have been at least four times the mass of the Sun.

It's not the most colorfully striking planetary nebula but I feel its form is beautiful--almost heart shaped. I think if we could see <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/9792507176/">Me 2-1</a> up close, it might bear some similarities to NGC 2867. (Note that Me 2-1's colors are shifted due to the unusual choice of filters for it.)

I found some weird ACS/WFC data that required a bunch of extra work for this one. I was just going to use the WFPC2 data since it didn't have the crazy bias streaks but I noticed that the f555w filter for the ACS/WFC image had these wonderful faint details emanating from the nebula and was thus sold on the extra work it took to reduce the bias streaks.

Unfortunately, there was no narrowband data available.

Red: F814W (JB5744010) Green: F555W (JB5744020) Blue: F435W (JB5744030)

I was surprised to find concentric shells around this one, much like the <a href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/27/image/a/" rel="nofollow">Cat's Eye Nebula</a> that is so famous. They are quite faint and were difficult to process but they should be easy enough to spot.

Processing notes: I combined the PC data with the rest of the WF data to create a partially more detailed image than without the PC data. The bad part of this is that I have a very hard time getting the two to match up no matter what I do and some parts of the PC data are actually less detailed. I sort of understand why but I don't understand it well enough to explain it better. I mix and matched it in a way I thought was both aesthetic and faithful to the object. Anyway, there are some faint lines visible across the image because of this.

Red: hst_11122_17_wfpc2_f658n_pc_drz + hst_11122_17_wfpc2_f658n_wf_drz + hst_08390_60_wfpc2_f658n_pc_drz Green: hst_11122_17_wfpc2_f656n_pc_drz + hst_11122_17_wfpc2_f656n_wf_drz Blue: hst_11122_17_wfpc2_f502n_pc_drz + hst_11122_17_wfpc2_f502n_wf_drz

The international Gemini Observatory composite color image of the planetary nebula CVMP 1 imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope on Cerro Pachón in Chile.

Credit:

Credit:

This object has a very clear bipolar form, with two very similar outflows of material in opposite directions and a dusty ring around the star.

Protoplanetary nebulae do not shine, but are illuminated by light from the central star that is reflected back to us. But as the star continues to evolve, it becomes hot enough to emit strong ultraviolet radiation that can ionise the surrounding gas, making it glow as a spectacular planetary nebula. But before the nebula begins to shine, fierce winds of material ejected from the star will continue to shape the surrounding gas into intricate patterns that can only be truly appreciated later once the nebula begins to glow.

Halpha filter show vanishnig red clouds

This beautiful planetary nebula is located within the rich constellation of Cygnus the Swan.

This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.

Credit:

Abell 43 is one of a handful of challenging planetary nebula to detect in any way. Even using a sensitive CCD camera under dark skies barely hints on the intricate lace-like network of detail in this sphere of gas. This nebula has a spherical nature like that of Abell 39, and the complex structure of NGC 246.

This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.

Credit:

Credit:

KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

This image, which looks a little like an enormous bubble in space, features a planetary nebula known as EGB 6. It was imaged by the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. Planetary nebulae, notoriously, have nothing to do with planets. They form during the dying millennia of intermediate-mass stars, stars with masses between one and eight times the mass of the Sun. “Dying millennia” might sound like a very long time, but compared to the overall lifespan of a star, planetary nebulae are extremely short-lived. Towards the end of their life cycle, intermediate-mass stars enter the red giant phase, during which fusion reactions temporarily reignite in a dying star’s core. Layers of gas, shed or ejected during the red giant phase, absorb vast amounts of energy and create the gorgeous phenomena known as planetary nebulae. The dying millenia only last about 20,000 years, a mere blink of an eye when you consider that intermediate-mass stars shine steadily for between 30 million to 10 billion years (depending on their mass) before they die.

Credit:

KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)

Coordinates
Position (RA):   	9 53 1.95
Position (Dec):  	13° 44' 10.94"
Field of view:   	30.49 x 30.02 arcminutes
Orientation:     	North is 90.1° left of vertical

Colors & filters Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Optical O III   	499 nm   	Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope Mosaic I
Optical H-alpha 	656 nm   	Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope Mosaic I

Credit:

Credit:

This excellent image of the Dumbbell Nebula (M27, NGC6853), a planetary nebula in the constellation of Vulpecula, was taken at the 3.5-meter WIYN telescope using the mini-mosaic imager (described in an NOAO newsletter article). The nebula was formed when an evolved, red giant star ejected its outer envelope near the end of its lifetime. The expanding cloud of gas becomes visible once the hot core of the star, visible near the center, is exposed and the high-energy, ultraviolet light from the core ionizes the cloud. This makes the nebula emit mostly a strong emission-line spectrum. This color image was obtained by combining three separate pictures, each one taken through a narrow filter centered at the emission wavelengths of Hydrogen (H alpha, red, 656 nm), doubly ionized Oxygen (OIII, green, 501 nm), and neutral Oxygen (OI, blue, 630 nm). It is physically very interesting that neutral gas can survive in a region right next to highly ionized gas, and this image shows how, as the blue component is concentrated in very dense clumps which act to protect the neutral oxygen from the intense ultraviolet radiation which has ionized the other gas components. We can compare this to a picture combining three images all of ionized gases, (also from the WIYN telecope), and to the more usual color image from the Mayall 4-meter telescope, or the nice deep image from the 2.1-meter telescope. The Dumbbell nebula is about 850 light-years away from Earth and about 1.5 light-years in diameter (although both distance and size are very poorly constrained).

Credit:

George Jacoby, WIYN/NSF

Coordinates
Position (RA):  	19 59 36.22
Position (Dec): 	22° 43' 14.39"
Field of view:  	8.70 x 8.70 arcminutes
Orientation:     	North is 0.2° right of vertical

Colors & filters Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Optical Ol          	630 nm    	WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope Mini Mosaic
Optical Olll         	501 nm    	WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope Mini Mosaic
Optical Ha           	656 nm    	WIYN 3.5-meter Telescope Mini Mosaic

The star’s agony has culminated in a wonderful planetary nebula known as NGC 6565, a cloud of gas that was ejected from the star after strong stellar winds pushed the star’s outer layers away into space. Once enough material was ejected, the star’s luminous core was exposed and it began to produce ultraviolet radiation, exciting the surrounding gas to varying degrees and causing it to radiate in an attractive array of colours. These same colours can be seen in the famous and impressive Ring Nebula (heic1310), a prominent example of a nebula like this one.

Planetary nebulae are illuminated for around 10 000 years before the central star begins to cool and shrink to become a white dwarf. When this happens, the star’s light drastically diminishes and ceases to excite the surrounding gas, so the nebula fades from view.

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman Telescope (RC Optical Systems)
   Camera            SBIG STX 16803 CCD Camera
   Filters           AstroDon Gen II
   Dates             February 2012
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          LRGB = 340:90:100:100 minutes
   Acquisition       ACP Observatory Control Software (DC-3 Dreams),TheSky (Software Bisque), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen)
   Processing        CCDStack V2+ (CCDWare), Photoshop CS5 (Adobe), PixInsight

Small but bright and pretty, NGC 6884 was<a href="http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/sow/n6884.html" rel="nofollow">known</a> to be a bright, round disk until Hubble took a look at it, revealing complex details. It's a shame that many planetary nebulas are so hard to see. It would appear even more bright if it were not for our Milky Way's interloping dust.

Red: hst_06119_41_wfpc2_f814w_pc_sci+hst_08390_08_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_08390_08_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci Blue: hst_08390_08_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

Credit:

Supernova Remnant, G70.5+1.9

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. G70.5+1.9 is located near the edge of the giant HII emission nebula Sharpless 100 (Sh2-100). It is likely a supernova remnant, the leftovers of a star that exploded as a supernova years ago. The image was generated with observations in Hydrogen alpha (red) and Sulphur [S II] (blue) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.

Credit:

What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons of gas heated to more than 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The gas is tearing across space at more than 600,000 miles an hour -- fast enough to travel from Earth to the moon in 24 minutes!

A dying star that was once about five times the mass of the Sun is at the center of this fury. It has ejected its envelope of gases and is now unleashing a stream of ultraviolet radiation that is making the cast-off material glow. This object is an example of a planetary nebula, so-named because many of them have a round appearance resembling that of a planet when viewed through a small telescope.

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), a new camera aboard NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, snapped this image of the planetary nebula, catalogued as NGC 6302, but more popularly called the Bug Nebula or the Butterfly Nebula. WFC3 was installed by NASA astronauts in May 2009, during the servicing mission to upgrade and repair the 19-year-old Hubble telescope.

NGC 6302 lies within our Milky Way galaxy, roughly 3,800 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. The glowing gas is the star’s outer layers, expelled over about 2,200 years. The "butterfly" stretches for more than two light-years, which is about half the distance from the Sun to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri.

The central star itself cannot be seen, because it is hidden within a doughnut-shaped ring of dust, which appears as a dark band pinching the nebula in the center. The thick dust belt constricts the star’s outflow, creating the classic "bipolar" or hourglass shape displayed by some planetary nebulae.

The star’s surface temperature is estimated to be about 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit, making it one of the hottest known stars in our galaxy. Spectroscopic observations made with ground-based telescopes show that the gas is roughly 36,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is unusually hot compared to a typical planetary nebulae.

The WFC3 image reveals a complex history of ejections from the star. The star first evolved into a huge red-giant star, with a diameter of about 1,000 times that of our Sun. It then lost its extended outer layers. Some of this gas was cast off from its equator at a relatively slow speed, perhaps as low as 20,000 miles an hour, creating the doughnut-shaped ring. Other gas was ejected perpendicular to the ring at higher speeds, producing the elongated "wings" of the butterfly-shaped structure. Later, as the central star heated up, a much faster stellar wind, a stream of charged particles travelling at more than 2 million miles an hour, plowed through the existing wing-shaped structure, further modifying its shape.

The image also shows numerous finger-like projections pointing back to the star, which may mark denser blobs in the outflow that have resisted the pressure from the stellar wind.

The nebula's outer edges are largely due to light emitted by nitrogen, which marks the coolest gas visible in the picture. WFC3 is equipped with a wide variety of filters that isolate light emitted by various chemical elements, allowing astronomers to infer properties of the nebular gas, such as its temperature, density, and composition.

The white-colored regions are areas where light is emitted by sulfur. These are regions where fast-moving gas overtakes and collides with slow-moving gas that left the star at an earlier time, producing shock waves in the gas (the bright white edges on the sides facing the central star). The white blob with the crisp edge at upper right is an example of one of those shock waves.

NGC 6302 was imaged on July 27, 2009 with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 in ultraviolet and visible light. Filters that isolate emissions from oxygen, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur from the planetary nebula were used to create this composite image.

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. Sh2-68 is an ancient planetary nebula that is estimated to be at least 45,000 years old. The diffuse orange emission to the upper right is the result of the planetary nebula's motion through the disk of our galaxy. The bluish interior is from energized oxygen atoms. The progenitor star is the very blue star at the center of the bluish gas. The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is right, East is up.

The Westbrook Nebula — also known as PK166-06, CRL 618 and AFGL 618 — is a protoplanetary nebula, an opaque, dark and relatively short-lived cloud of gas that is ejected by a star as it runs out of nuclear fuel. As the star hidden deep in the centre of the nebula evolves further it will turn into a hot white dwarf and the gas around it will become a glowing planetary nebula, before eventually dispersing. Because this is a relatively brief stage in the evolution process of stars, only a few hundred protoplanetary nebulae are known in the Milky Way.

Protoplanetary nebulae are cool, and so emit little visible light. This makes them very faint, posing challenges to scientists who wish to study them. What this picture shows, therefore, is a composite image representing the different tricks that the astronomers used to unravel what is going on within this strange nebula. The picture includes exposures in visible light which shows light reflected from the cloud of gas, combined with other exposures in the near-infrared part of the spectrum, showing us the dim glow, invisible to human eyes, that is coming from different elements deep in the cloud itself.

One of the nebula’s names, AFGL 618, comes from its discovery by a precursor to the Hubble Space Telescope: the letters stand for Air Force Geophysics Laboratory. This US research organisation launched a series of suborbital rockets with infrared telescopes on board in the 1970s, cataloguing hundreds of objects that were impossible or difficult to observe from the ground. In some respects, these were a proof of concept for later orbital infrared astronomical facilities including Hubble and ESA’s Herschel Space Observatory.

This image was prepared from many separate exposures taken using Hubble’s newest camera, the Wide Field Camera 3. Exposures through a green filter (F547M) were coloured blue, those through a yellow/orange filter (F606W) were coloured green and exposures through a filter that isolates the glow from ionised nitrogen (F658N) have been coloured red. Images through filters that capture the glows from singly and doubly ionised sulphur (F673N and F953N) are also shown in red. The total exposure times were about nine minutes through each filter and the field of view is approximately 20 arcseconds across. Links

Credit:

This image shows off the impressive imaging capabilities of the new CCD detectors in the Mosaic 1.1 camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The image is of Sharpless 2-188 (Sh2-188), an unusual planetary nebula located in the constellation Cassiopeia. The expanding gas from the planetary nebula is colliding with ambient gas in the interstellar medium. The nebula is nearly circular in shape but is much brighter to the southeast (lower left) because the central star is moving rapidly in that direction. Faint wisps of gas can also be seen in the opposite direction. The image was generated with deep observations in the Hydrogen alpha filter (red) and the Oxygen [OIII] filter (cyan). In this image, North is up and East is to the left.

Credit:

Protoplanetary nebulae offer glimpses of how stars similar to the Sun end their lives and how they make the transition to white dwarfs surrounded by planetary nebulae. As it ages, a Sun-like star eventually sheds its outer layers into space, creating a beautiful and often intricately shaped cloud of gas and dust around it. At first, still relatively cool, the star is unable to ionise this gas, which shines only by reflected and scattered stellar light. Only when the temperature of the star increases enough to ionise this protoplanetary nebula does the pattern of gas and dust become a fully fledged planetary nebula.

Protoplanetary nebulae are relatively rare and short-lived objects that provide astronomers with clues into how the often strangely asymmetric planetary nebulae are formed. Clearly visible in this image are five blue lobes that extend away from the central star and give the nebula its asymmetric starfish shape. While astronomers have come up with theories for the origin of these structures, such as direction-changing jets or explosive ejections of matter from the star, their formation is not entirely understood.

IRAS 19024+0044 is blue in colour as the blue component of the light coming from the star is more easily scattered by the gas and dust in the nebula, while the red and orange rays are relatively unaffected. This is similar to what happens to sunlight in the Earth’s atmosphere, giving the sky its distinctive shade of blue.

Protoplanetary nebulae like Minkowski’s Footprint have short lives, being a preliminary stage to the more common planetary nebula phase. In the middle of the image is a star, soon to be a white dwarf, puffing out material due to intense surface pulsations. Charged particle streams, called stellar winds, are shaping this gas into the interesting shapes that Hubble allows us to see.

Technically speaking Minkowski’s Footprint is currently a reflection nebula as it is only visible due to the light reflected from the central star. In a few thousand years the star will get hotter and its ultraviolet radiation will light up the surrounding gas from within, causing it to glow. At this point it will have become a fully fledged planetary nebula.

The processes behind protoplanetary nebulae are not completely understood, making observations such as this even more important. Hubble has already conducted sterling work in this field, and is set to continue.

Despite the clarity of this Hubble image, the two objects in the picture above can be confusing for observers. J 900’s nearby companion, a faint star in the constellation of Gemini, often causes problems for observers because it is so close to the nebula — when seeing conditions are bad, this star seems to merge into J 900, giving it an elongated appearance. Hubble’s position above the Earth’s atmosphere means that this is not an issue for the space telescope.

Astronomers have also mistakenly reported observations of a double star in place of these two objects, as the planetary nebula is quite small and compact.

J 900’s central star is only just visible in this image, and is very faint — fainter than the nebula’s neighbour. The nebula appears to display a bipolar structure, where there are two distinct lobes of material emanating from its centre, enclosed by a bright oval disc.

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows planetary nebula Hen 3-1333. Planetary nebulae are nothing to do with planets — they actually represent the death throes of mid-sized stars like the Sun. As they puff out their outer layers, large, irregular globes of glowing gas expand around them, which appeared planet-like through the small telescopes that were used by their first discoverers.

The star at the heart of Hen 3-1333 is thought to have a mass of around 60% that of the Sun, but unlike the Sun, its apparent brightness varies substantially over time. Astronomers believe this variability is caused by a disc of dust which lies almost edge-on when viewed from Earth, which periodically obscures the star.

It is a Wolf–Rayet type star — a late stage in the evolution of Sun-sized stars. These are named after (and share many observational characteristics with) Wolf–Rayet stars, which are much larger. Why the similarity? Both Wolf–Rayet and Wolf–Rayet type stars are hot and bright because their helium cores are exposed: the former because of the strong stellar winds characteristic of these stars; the latter because the outer layers of the stars have been puffed away as the star runs low on fuel.

The exposed helium core, rich with heavier elements, means that the surfaces of these stars are far hotter than the Sun, typically 25 000 to 50 000 degrees Celsius (the Sun has a comparatively chilly surface temperature of just 5500 degrees Celsius).

So while they are dramatically smaller in size, the Wolf–Rayet type stars such as the one at the core of Hen 3-1333 effectively mimic the appearance of their much bigger and more energetic namesakes: they are sheep in Wolf–Rayet clothing.

A spur of gas (green) is forming a faint bridge to the companion star due to gravitational attraction. The image also shows a ring of gas (green) surrounding the central star, with bubbles of gas to the lower left and upper right of the ring. The wind of material propelled by radiation from the hot central star has created enough pressure to blow open holes in the ends of the bubbles, allowing gas to escape. The red curved lines represent bright gas that is heated by a "shock" caused when the central star's wind hits the walls of the bubbles.

The nebula is as large as 130 solar systems, but, at its distance of 18,000 light-years, it appears only as big as a dime viewed a mile away. The Stingray is located in the direction of the southern constellation Ara (the Altar).

Looking at this one, I get the impression that perhaps we aren't seeing its best side. It's always hard to get a sense for what's in front and what's in back but this one is especially difficult. At first it seems random and asymmetrical but running vertically through the image is a curve which looks a lot like a graph of the cube of x.

The outer portions are a tad grainy and blurry because they are WF data while the inner section came from the PC chip so it's nice and smooth.

Red: hst_08773_05_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci

Green: hst_08773_05_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_06792_01_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci

Blue: hst_06792_01_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci + hst_08773_05_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

Not very bright but still easy to spot, so <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2022" rel="nofollow">says Wikipedia</a>. I wonder if it's got fliers like <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/9680526575/">NGC 3242</a>. Could be hard to see with the filters used. You might notice that the photo on the Wikipedia article shows the edge of the nebula cut off a bit. There's some newer data in the archive that doesn't cut it off so I used that instead of the old WFPC2 data.

Red: F814W (jb5723020) Green: Pseudo Blue: F555W (jb5723030)

Picture Details:

   Optics            24-inch RC Optical Systems Telescope
   Camera            SBIG STL11000 CCD Camera
   Filters           Custom Scientific
   Dates             May 31st-June 1st
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          LRGB = 150:100:80:80 minutes
   Acquisition       TheSky (Software Bisque), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen)
   Processing        CCDStack (CCDWare), Mira (MiraMetrics), Maxim DL (Cyanogen), Photoshop CS3 (Adobe)

Finally, I found a planetary nebula that also has some data for the faint halo surrounding it. A lot of planetary nebulas have these but images of them <a href="http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0733d/" rel="nofollow">tend to only show the brightest parts</a> while omitting the halo. (Note that's not a covert criticism, to that particular image. I only linked to it as an example.)

Red: hst_11093_02_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_11093_02_wfpc2_f656n_pc_sci Blue: hst_11093_02_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci Halo luminosity: hst_06347_20_wfpc2_f656n_wf_sci

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman Telescope (RC Optical Systems), Acquired remotely
   Camera            SBIG STX 16803 CCD Camera
   Filters           AstroDon Gen II
   Dates             October 2012
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          RGB = 30:30:30 minutes
   Acquisition       ACP Observatory Control Software (DC-3 Dreams),TheSky (Software Bisque), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen)
   Processing        CCDStack (CCDWare), Photoshop CS5 (Adobe), PixInsight
   Guest Astronomers:Participants of the October 2012 Advanced Image Processing Workshop

Blue 3.6 µm

The image is improvement by filling in the blank corner with the single channel of H-alpha data available. Further, the purple stars are tuned to white.

This nebula glows brightly in H-alpha, other channel do not contribute much to it. The three filters used were f675w, f656n, and f555w. The wideband filters were useful for making the stars visible.

Data from Anthony Moffat's proposals, <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=6787" rel="nofollow">6787</a> and <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=11137" rel="nofollow">11137</a>, were used.

The planetary nebula NGC 6563 observed with the AOF

The Adaptive Optics Facility works to remove the blurring effect of Earth’s atmosphere. When used one can see much finer details in the faint planetary nebula NGC 6563 as compared to the natural sky quality.

Credit:

Another planetary nebula. Very similar to <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/9667741870">NGC 6826</a> but it's interesting to compare the subtle differences. Why are they so similar? Why are some parts not similar? Are they <a href="http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2013/37" rel="nofollow">aligned for some reason</a>?

Processing notes: Most of the nebula was on three filters but the edges were cut off around the outer part of the fainter spheroid. Something like <a href="File:NGC_3242_-HST-_R658G656B502.png" rel="nofollow">this</a> but I used a different set for the WFPC2-PC squares. There's more than one way to process a nebula...

Red: hst_08773_13_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_08773_13_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci Blue: hst_08773_13_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

Extra bits around the edge that were missing from the PC: hst_10822_02_wfpc2_f547m_wf_sci

Exposed Cranium Nebula

The brain-like orb called PMR 1 has been nicknamed the "Exposed Cranium" nebula by Spitzer scientists. This planetary nebula, located roughly 5,000 light-years away in the Vela constellation, is host to a hot, massive dying star that is rapidly disintegrating, losing its mass. The nebula's insides, which appear mushy and red in this view, are made up primarily of ionized gas, while the outer green shell is cooler, consisting of glowing hydrogen molecules.

In this image, infrared light at wavelengths of 3.6 microns is rendered in blue, 4.5 microns in green, and 8.0 microns in red.

About the Object

Name

   PMR1 • PN G272.8+01.0 • Exposed Cranium Nebula

Type

   Nebula > Type > Planetary

Distance

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the planetary nebula IC 289, located in the northern constellation of Cassiopeia. Formerly a star like our Sun, it is now just a cloud of ionised gas being pushed out into space by the remnants of the star’s core, visible as a small bright dot in the middle of the cloud.

Weirdly enough, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. Early observers, when looking through small telescopes, could only see undefined, smoky forms that looked like gaseous planets — hence the name. The term has stuck even though modern telescopes like Hubble have made it clear that these objects are not planets at all, but the outer layers of dying stars being thrown off into space.

Stars shine as a result of nuclear fusion reactions in their cores, converting hydrogen to helium. All stars are stable, balancing the inward push caused by their gravity with the outwards thrust from the inner fusion reactions in their cores. When all the hydrogen is consumed the equilibrium is broken; the gravitational forces become more powerful than the outward pressure from the fusion process and the core starts to collapse, heating up as it does so.

When the hot, shrinking core gets hot enough, the helium nuclei begin to fuse into carbon and oxygen and the collapse stops. However, this helium-burning phase is highly unstable and huge pulsations build up, eventually becoming large enough to blow the whole star’s atmosphere away.

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Serge Meunier.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

About the Object

Name:	IC 289
Type:	• Milky Way : Nebula : Type : Planetary
• Nebulae Images/Videos

Colours & filters

Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Optical B	469 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2
Optical V	502 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2
Optical H-alpha	656 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2
Optical R	658 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFPC2

The Boomerang Nebula is a young planetary nebula and the coldest object found in the Universe so far. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is yet another example of how Hubble's sharp eye reveals surprising details in celestial objects.

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows a young planetary nebula known (rather curiously) as the Boomerang Nebula. It is in the constellation of Centaurus, 5000 light-years from Earth. Planetary nebulae form around a bright, central star when it expels gas in the last stages of its life.

The Boomerang Nebula is one of the Universe's peculiar places. In 1995, using the 15-metre Swedish ESO Submillimetre Telescope in Chile, astronomers Sahai and Nyman revealed that it is the coldest place in the Universe found so far. With a temperature of -272C, it is only 1 degree warmer than absolute zero (the lowest limit for all temperatures). Even the -270C background glow from the Big Bang is warmer than this nebula. It is the only object found so far that has a temperature lower than the background radiation.

Keith Taylor and Mike Scarrott called it the Boomerang Nebula in 1980 after observing it with a large ground-based telescope in Australia. Unable to see the detail that only Hubble can reveal, the astronomers saw merely a slight asymmetry in the nebula's lobes suggesting a curved shape like a boomerang. The high-resolution Hubble images indicate that 'the Bow tie Nebula' would perhaps have been a better name.

The Hubble telescope took this image in 1998. It shows faint arcs and ghostly filaments embedded within the diffuse gas of the nebula's smooth 'bow tie' lobes. The diffuse bow-tie shape of this nebula makes it quite different from other observed planetary nebulae, which normally have lobes that look more like 'bubbles' blown in the gas. However, the Boomerang Nebula is so young that it may not have had time to develop these structures. Why planetary nebulae have so many different shapes is still a mystery.

The general bow-tie shape of the Boomerang appears to have been created by a very fierce 500 000 kilometre-per-hour wind blowing ultracold gas away from the dying central star. The star has been losing as much as one-thousandth of a solar mass of material per year for 1500 years. This is 10-100 times more than in other similar objects. The rapid expansion of the nebula has enabled it to become the coldest known region in the Universe.

The Ant planetary nebula (Menzel 3 or Mz 3). STScI-PRC2001-05

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the ant's body as a pair of fiery lobes protruding from a dying, Sun-like star. Though approaching the violence of an explosion, the ejection of gas from the dying star at the center of Mz3 has intriguing symmetrical patterns unlike the chaotic patterns expected from an ordinary explosion. Scientists using the Hubble space telescope would like to understand how a spherical star can produce such prominent, non-spherical symmetries in the gas that it ejects.

One possibility is that the central star of Mz3 has a closely orbiting companion that exerts strong gravitational tidal forces, which shape the outflowing gas. For this to work, the orbiting companion star would have to be close to the dying star, about the distance of the Earth from the Sun. At that distance the orbiting companion star wouldn't be far outside the hugely bloated hulk of the dying star. It's even possible that the dying star has consumed its companion, which now orbits inside of it, much like the duck in the wolf's belly in the story "Peter and the Wolf."

A second possibility is that, as the dying star spins, its strong magnetic fields are wound up into complex shapes. Charged winds moving at speeds up to 1000 kilometers per second from the star, are able to follow the twisted field lines on their way out into space. These dense winds can be rendered visible by ultraviolet light from the hot central star or from highly supersonic collisions with the ambient gas that excites the material into florescence.

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. MWP1 is a very usually shaped, unusually large, and unusually old, planetary nebulae. The progenitor star is also one of the hottest stars known, so hot it is producing large amounts of X-rays. The image was generated with observations in the Oxygen [OIII] (blue) and Hydrogen-Alpha (orange) filters. In this image, North is up, East is to the left.

Planetary nebulae are one of the main ways in which elements heavier than hydrogen and helium are dispersed into space after their creation in the hearts of stars. Eventually some of this outflung material may form new stars and planets. The vivid red and blue hues in this image come from the material glowing under the action of the fierce ultraviolet radiation from the still hot central star.

This object, which is designated NGC 6741, also known as the Phantom Streak Nebula, is located about 7000 light-years away in the constellation of Aquila (the Eagle). NGC 6741 is classed as a planetary nebula, though no planets are responsible for this billowy cloud; the term came about in the 18th century because the round gas shells resembled the Solar System's outer giant planets in astronomers' telescopes. Although fairly bright, this object appears very small though a typical telescope and was missed by early surveyors of the skies and only spotted in 1882 by Edward Charles Pickering.

Stars with sizes that are somewhat smaller than our Sun to several times its mass often become planetary nebulae. This brief, late-in-life phase is entered after stars have ballooned into red giants. The still-energetic cores of these swollen stars cast off their own outer gaseous layers and the expanding bubble of material is set aglow by the central star's intense ultraviolet light. The newly formed planetary nebula then shines for perhaps 10 000 years before the material drifts away and leaves the progenitor star to very slowly cool and fade.

Planetary nebulae are short-lived and come in a wide assortment of shapes and sizes. Only about a fifth are spherical, and others can look like rings, discs, tubes or be entirely without symmetry, owing to distortions introduced by magnetic fields, binary central stars and as-yet unexplained phenomena. NGC 6741 does contain a second star and is thought to be well along in its period as a planetary nebula, and has assumed more of a rectangular shape, rather like a luminous pillow.

As stars similar to the Sun age they swell into red giant stars and when this phase ends they start to shed their atmospheres into space. The surroundings become rich in dust and the star is still relatively cool. At this point the cloud shines by reflecting the brilliant light of the central star and the warm dust gives off lots of infrared radiation. It was this infrared radiation that was detected by the IRAS satellite in 1983 and brought the object to the attention of astronomers. Jets from the star may create strange hollow lobes, and in the case of IRAS 19475+3119 two such features appear at different angles. These curious objects are rare and short-lived.

As the star continues to shed material the hotter core is gradually revealed. The intense ultraviolet radiation causes the surrounding gas to glow brilliantly and a planetary nebula is born. The objects that come before planetary nebulae, such as IRAS 19475+3119, are known as preplanetary nebulae, or protoplanetary nebulae. They have nothing to do with planets — the name planetary nebula arose as they looked rather like the outer planets Uranus and Neptune when seen through small telescopes.

An infrared, pseudogreen, red light view of a beautifully symmetrical bipolar preplanetary nebula (are we just calling these 'young' planetary nebulas now?). The blue appearance is due to the filters used. Note the blue outflows are glowing, ionized gas, not dust. There is a very faint but curious stray bit of gas pointing directly back to the central star down and to the left of the nebula.

Thumbnails in the HLA are of awful quality and obviously created with some error but the actual data (acquired through DADS) is very nice looking.

This object was also imaged for <a href="http://archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?mission=hst&id=10536" rel="nofollow">proposal 10536</a>.

Red: ACS/WFC F814W Green: Pseudo Blue: ACS/WFC F606W

This process has been far from orderly or calm, however, as revealed by the distinct, separate waves of thrown-off gases. One is more distant and therefore was spewed first, followed by a more recently ejected tide of matter that formed the tighter S-shape. The result is remarkably symmetric on each side of the central star.

Credit:

This image was taken with the KPNO Mayall 4-meter telescope on November 5, 2010. Located in the constellation of Cassiopeia, KjPn8 (also known as PN G112.5-00.1) is a very unusual bipolar planetary nebula. Its complex structure is the result of irregular ejections of gas in different directions. It was observed in the narrowband filters of Oxygen [OIII] (blue) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red). North is down, East is to the right.

Credit:

• Rot: ionisierter Stickstoff (kältestes Gas))
• Grün: Wasserstoff;
• Blau: ionisierter Sauerstoff (heißestes Gas)

I'm struggling to find anything to say about this one. It's pretty. Here's a link to its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7662" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia article</a>.

Red: hst_08390_11_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci+hst_11122_18_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_08390_11_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci Blue: hst_08390_11_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci+hst_11122_18_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

Picture Details:

   Optics            32-inch Schulman Telescope (RC Optical Systems)
   Camera            SBIG STX 16803 CCD Camera
   Filters           AstroDon Gen II
   Dates             November 2014
   Location          Mount Lemmon SkyCenter
   Exposure          HaRGB = 10:4:4:4 Hours
   Acquisition       ACP Observatory Control Software (DC-3 Dreams), Maxim DL/CCD (Cyanogen), FlatMan XL (Alnitak)
   Processing        CCDStack, Photoshop CC, PixInsight
   Credit Line and Copyright        Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona 

But the Fine Ring Nebula — captured here by the ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera mounted on the New Technology Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile — looks like an almost perfect circular ring. Astronomers believe that some of these more unusually shaped planetary nebulae are formed when the progenitor star is actually a binary system. The interaction between the primary star and its orbiting companion shapes the ejected material.

The stellar object at the centre of the Fine Ring Nebula is indeed thought to be a binary system, orbiting with a period of 2.9 days. Observations suggest that the binary pair is almost perfectly face-on from our vantage point, implying that the planetary nebula’s structure is aligned in the same way. We are looking down on a torus (doughnut shape) of ejected material, leading to the strikingly circular ring shape in the image.

Planetary nebulae are shaped by the complex interplay of many physical processes. Not only can these celestial objects be admired for their beauty, but the study of precisely how they form their striking shapes is a fascinating topic in astronomical research.

At the end of its life, a star with a mass less than eight times that of the Sun will blow its outer layers away, giving rise to a planetary nebula. Some of these stellar puffballs are almost round, resembling huge soap bubbles or giant planets (hence the name), but others, such as NGC 5189 are more intricate.

In particular, this planetary nebula exhibits a curious “S”-shaped profile, with a central bar that is most likely the projection of an inner ring of gas discharged by the star, seen edge on. The details of the physical processes producing such a complex symmetry from a simple, spherical star are still the object of astronomical controversy. One possibility is that the star has a very close (but unseen) companion. Over time the orbits drift due to precession and this could result in the complex curves on the opposite sides of the star visible in this image.

This image has been taken with the New Technology Telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, using the now decommissioned EMMI instrument. It is a combination of exposures taken through different narrowband filters, each designed to catch only the light coming from the glow of a given chemical element, namely hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen.

Credit: ESO

Id: potw1012a Release Date: Mar 22, 2010, 08:21 CET

NGC 5307 looks a little strange to me. The nebula shrouding the central star has an interesting, almost nacreous appearance. It reminds me of the inside of a shell of abalone. The whole thing is kind of blurry. Is that because the nebula is dissipating and no longer so sharply defined?

The usual knots of bright, glowing H-alpha are once again red in appearance.

In blue, some He II (f469n) data seemed quite specifically concentrated in the core of the nebula so I emphasized it quite a bit even though it doesn't glow especially brightly.

I went ahead and used the data labeled "heritage" in the HLA. The label makes me wonder if someone else deserves credit for doing some processing before me. Then again, I've been wondering just how much of the data in the archive is automatically processed and how much is done by humans. It seems like a rather thankless job if there are humans doing much of the work.

Red: hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f675w_v1_sci_sci + hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f658n_v1_sci_sci
Green: hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f656n_v1_sci_sci + hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f555w_v1_sci_sci
Blue: hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f502n_v1_sci_sci + hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f469n_v1_sci_sci + hlsp_heritage_hst_wfpc2_n5307_f439w_v1_sci_sci

CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA

I won't claim this one is very interesting. Or maybe the reason it is visually uninteresting is what might make it interesting? There's virtually no Hydrogen-alpha emissions to be found, which is usually displayed as pinkish red in my other nebulas. I did include the Ha (f658n) filter but it contributed virtually no light to the image at all.

You might notice some ever so slight fringing due to some of the data being from three years prior to the rest of the data. This happens because the nebula's expansion is noticeable after a few years.

You might also notice I used two f555w filters for green. It helped reduce the noise for the green channel slightly.

Anyway, this neglected nebula doesn't even have a common name that I could find. I'd call it the Snail Shell Nebula. It also makes me think of an embryo.

Red: hst_06119_93_wfpc2_f814w_pc_sci + hst_08390_04_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_06119_93_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci + hst_08390_04_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci Blue: hst_08390_04_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

Gemini Observatory image of Kronberger 61 showing the ionized shell of expelled gas resembling a soccer ball. The light of the nebula is primarily due to ionized oxygen (oxygen-III) emission and its central star can be seen as the slightly bluer star very close to the center of the nebula. The field of view is 2.2 x 3.4 arcminutes with north up (rotated 22 degrees west of north). Image processing by Travis Rector, University of Alaska Anchorage. A color composite image, it consists of two narrow-band images (O-III and Hydrogen-alpha with three, 500-second integrations each) obtained with the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i. Below the bright star at left is a barred spiral galaxy in the distant background, careful inspection will reveal several additional distant galaxies in the image.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA

Despite the name, these ethereal objects have nothing at all to do with planets; this misnomer came about over a century ago, when the first astronomers to observe them only had small, poor-quality telescopes. Through these, the nebulae looked small, compact, and planet-like — and so were labelled as such.

When a star like the Sun approaches the end of its life, it flings material out into space. Planetary nebulae are the intricate, glowing shells of dust and gas pushed outwards from such a star. At their centres lie the remnants of the original stars themselves — small, dense white dwarf stars.

In this image of ESO 456-67, it is possible to see the various layers of material expelled by the central star. Each appears in a different hue — red, orange, yellow, and green-tinted bands of gas are visible, with clear patches of space at the heart of the nebula. It is not fully understood how planetary nebulae form such a wide variety of shapes and structures; some appear to be spherical, some elliptical, others shoot material in waves from their polar regions, some look like hourglasses or figures of eight, and others resemble large, messy stellar explosions — to name but a few.

Optical image: Wide Field Planetary Camera-2, composite image of three images taken at different wavelengths:

• red, hydrogen-alpha, 656.28 nm;
• blue, neutral oxygen, 630 nm;
• green, ionized nitrogen, 658.4 nm.

This is the 100th planetary nebula I have processed! Woo hoo. Lots of strange and interesting structures in this one. The dust lane looks like it's corkscrew-shaped but I might be imagining that.

I used some WFC3/UVIS data for the nebula itself and some older WF/PC to finish off the corners to expand the star field so the composition wasn't so closely cramped around the nebula.

Red: hst_11580_03_wfc3_uvis_f814w_sci + hst_11580_03_wfc3_uvis_f658n_sci Green: hst_11580_03_wfc3_uvis_f656n_sci + hst_11580_03_wfc3_uvis_f555w_sci Blue: hst_11580_03_wfc3_uvis_f555w_sci

Outer corners only: Red: hst_06364_01_wfpc2_f814w_pc_sci + hst_06347_25_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_07285_06_wfpc2_f656n_pc_sci + hst_06364_01_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci Blue: hst_06364_01_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci

There's definitely a much better way to do this, but I don't know it yet. I haven't tried combining narrowband and wideband data before.

This nebula was imaged for proposals 6119 & 8307.

150% original size. North is up.

Red: hst_06119_36_wfpc2_f814w_pc + hst_08307_01_wfpc2_f658n_pc Green: hst_08307_01_wfpc2_f656n_pc Blue: hst_06119_36_wfpc2_f555w_pc + hst_08307_01_wfpc2_f502n_pc

Despite their rather confusing names, these objects are unrelated to planets. The name arose because of the superficial visual similarity between planetary nebulae and the small discs of the outer planets in the Solar System when viewed through a telescope.

The protoplanetary nebula shown in this image is known as IRAS 20068+4051 and it is found in the constellation of Cygnus. The shell formed when its progenitor star exhausted its hydrogen fuel for nuclear fusion, causing the outer layers of the star to expand and cool, which created a spherical envelope of gas and dust around the star. The mechanism that drives high velocity winds to then shape this spherical envelope into the intricate structure that we see here is still unclear, which is why continued observation of protoplanetary nebulae is so important.

Meanwhile, as the central star continues to evolve, finding new ways to prevent itself from collapsing under its own gravity, it will eventually become hot enough to make the gas glow as a spectacular planetary nebula. These objects emit a broad spectrum of radiation, including visible light, making them great targets for both amateur and professional astronomers.

However, protoplanetary nebulae, which often appear smaller and are seen best in infrared light, are much trickier to observe, particularly since water vapour in the Earth’s atmosphere absorbs most infrared wavelengths. But Hubble has exceptionally sharp vision and an unobstructed vantage point in space, making it possible to capture stunning images of these peculiar objects.

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. PuWe 1 is one of the largest and faintest planetary nebula known to exist. The nebula was created when a red giant star blew off its outer layers near the end of its life. The gas is energized by the remaining core of the star, which is called a white dwarf. However it is very faint due to its large size. As planetary nebulae expand they become fainter because the gas moves further from the white dwarf that energizes it. The image was generated with observations in Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is left, East is down.

Credit:

A mosquito pestered me while I worked on this one. Winter, come and freeze the mosquitoes.

Red: f658n Green: f555w+f656n

At 1950 Yl distant, the dew nebula looks like a circular blue shape surrounded with a vanishing blue cloud expanding at 25Km/s. Many hole appear where the gaz is blowed by energy of the central star.

In this Hubble telescope image, the "parka" is really a disk of material embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, with their tails streaming away from the central, dying star. The Eskimo's "face" also contains some fascinating details. Although this bright central region resembles a ball of twine, it is, in reality, a bubble of material being blown into space by the central star's intense "wind" of high-speed material.

In this photo, one bubble lies in front of the other, obscuring part of the second lobe. Scientists believe that a ring of dense material around the star's equator, ejected during its red giant phase, created the nebula's shape. The bubbles are not smooth like balloons but have filaments of denser matter. Each bubble is about 1 light-year long and about half a light-year wide.

Scientists are still puzzled about the origin of the comet-shaped features in the "parka." One possible explanation is that these objects formed from a collision of slow-and fast-moving gases.

Do perfection and simplicity belong together in a harmonious marriage? IC 3568 is the planetary nebula representation of this idea. The simplicity of its form begets the perfection of its spherical shape.

I'm not sure when it gained the name Lemon Slice Nebula but the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IC3568.jpg" rel="nofollow">most common image of this nebula</a> is processed to look fluorescent lime green so that may have had something to do with it. Mine is blue to more closely match the processing I've done with the others. Keeping the OIII emissions (which this one shines so brightly in) solely in the blue channel leaves it a bit dark though so I let it spread to the green channel a little as well to brighten the image.

Red: hst_06119_50_wfpc2_f814w_pc_sci + hst_08390_15_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci Green: hst_08390_15_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci Blue: hst_08390_15_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. HFG1 is a planetary nebula in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It was produced by a binary star system (V664 Cas) that is moving rapidly through our Galaxy. The star is moving towards the upper-right of the image. As HFG1 plows through the interstellar medium, a bluish bowshock is produced; and a red trail of gas is left behind in its wake. The image was generated with observations in the Hydrogen alpha (red) and Oxygen [OIII] (blue) filters. In this image, North is down and East is to the right.

The Silkworm Nebula

The Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2has captured images of the birth of two planetary nebulae as they emerge from wrappings of gas and dust, like butterflies breaking out of their cocoons.

Credit:

Credit:

Gemini Legacy image of the complex planetary nebula Sh2-71 as imaged by the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on Gemini North on Mauna Kea in Hawai‘i. The long-assumed central star is the brightest star near the center, but some astronomers wonder if the much dimmer and bluer star (just to the right and down a bit) might be the parent of this beautiful object. See Image Release for details Technical Details: The image is composed of three narrow-band images, and each is assigned a color as follows: H-alpha (orange), HeII (blue) and [OIII] (cyan). Each image is 15 minutes in duration, the field-of-view is 5.3 x 3.6 arcminutes, and the image is rotated 110 degrees clockwise from north up, east left.

Credit:

This is the smallest planetary nebula I've found in the archive yet, zoomed to 200%. Isn't it cute? Ok, maybe only an astronomer could love this little guy.

Paul W. Merrill discovered this without a fancy space telescope by using spectroscopy. This view is small but Merrill never saw it with any detail at all. It's almost indistinguishable from a star through anything but a powerful telescope like Hubble.

Red: hst_05107_02_wfpc2_f439w_wf_sci + hst_05107_02_wfpc2_f547m_wf_sci

Green: hst_05107_02_wfpc2_f336w_wf_sci

NGC 7027 is going through spectacular death throes as it evolves into what astronomers call a "planetary nebula." The term planetary nebula came about not because of any real association with planets, but because in early telescopes these objects resembled the disks of planets.