View allAll Photos Tagged PlanetaryNebula
Description: A composite image of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue) and Hubble Space Telescope (red and purple) of NGC 6543 shows a phase that Sun-like stars undergo at the end of their lives. Material from the outer layers of the star in the Cat's Eye is flying away at about 4 million miles per hour. A hot core is left behind that eventually collapses to become a white dwarf star. The Chandra data reveal that the central star in NGC 6543 is surrounded by a cloud of multi-million-degree gas.
Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray
Date: 2008
Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/catseye/
Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Gift line: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI
Accession number: catseye08
Questa nebulosa planetaria, chiamata anche "Nebulosa Palla di Cristallo", è visibile nella costellazione del Toro.
Ha un diametro di 2.2' (circa 15 volte più piccola della dimensione apparente della Luna ad occhio nudo) ed al suo interno ha una stella di magnitudine 9.3. insolitamente brillante per il tipo di oggetto. Si pensa che questa stella sia binaria con un periodo di 10 giorni e la perdita di gas dalla stella più massiccia della coppia dà origine appunto alla nebulosa come la vediamo noi.
Tra la nebulosa e la stella luminosa sulla parte destra del fotogramma si scorge anche della polvere interstellare (presente in realtà anche sul resto del fotogramma ma molto più debole)
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NGC 1514 is a planetary nebula visible in Taurus constellation.
It has a diameter of 2.2' and shows a central star of magnitude 9.3 which is unusually bright for these type of objects: probably it is a binary star with a period of 10 days and the gas which constitute the nebula is expanding away from the more massive star of the pair.
In this image, between the planetary nebula and the bright yellow star on the right side, it is visible also some interstellar dust (indeed in all the frame it is visible dust, but it is very faint and can be seen only with a strong stretch of the image)
Technical data
Image taken on October 25/26 2019 from Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy)
RC12 GSO Truss (diameter 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm)
Mount GM2000 HPSII
CCD Moravian G3-16200 with filters Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Serie LRGB
Exposure: L 30x600”, R 16x300”, G 16x300", B 16x300”, all in bin2 with sensor temperature -20C
Total exposure 9h
Guide with OAG Moravian
Imaging session managed by Voyager sw
Post processing with Pixinsight 1.8 e Photoshop
Here is a view of an ancient planetary nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia and known by several names including Sharpless 2-200 and The Bear Claw Nebula. It was discovered in the early 1980’s by examining the 1960’s Palomar Observatory Sky Survey. You can read more about the discovery in an article titled “A newly discovered nearby planetary nebula of old age” by Authors: Weinberger, R., Dengel, J., Hartl, H., & Sabbadin, F.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 5 hours and 45 minutes using 5-minute exposures, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: September 20, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Questa nebulosa si trova nella costellazione del Perseo ed è uno degli oggetti più deboli del Catalogo di Messier, avendo magnitudine apparente 10.1. Le sue dimensioni apparenti sono di 2.7'x1.8' (per confronto la Luna piena ha un diametro di 30') e la sua distanza stimata è di 3400 anni luce.
Curiosamente questa nebulosa è identificata con due numeri del catalogo NGC: NGC 650 e 651. Infatti ai tempi della compilazione del NGC (seconda metà dell'800) si pensava ancora che questo oggetto fosse costituito da due nebulose distinte in contatto.
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This nebula is located in Perseus constellation and it is one of the faintest objects inside Messier Catalogue, having apparent magnitude 10.1.
It has has an apparent diameter of 2.7’x1.8’ (by comparison the full Moon has diameter of 30'): its estimated distance is 3400 light years.
Curiously it is identified with two NGC numbers (NGC 650 and 651), because at the time of preparation of the NGC catalogue it was supposed to be a double nebula with the two components in contact.
Technical data
Image taken on 10/25 October and 7 December 2019 from Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy)
RC12 GSO Truss (diameter 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm)
Mount GM2000 HPSII
CCD Moravian G3-16200 with filters Astrodon Tru-Balance Gen2 E-Serie RGB, Astrodon Ha5nm, OIII 5nm
RGB 8x300" for each color channel, all in bin2 -20C
Ha 20x900”, OIII 17x900” all in bin2 -30C
Total exposure 11.2h
Guide with OAG Moravian and Moravian camera G1-0301
Imaging session managed by Voyager sw
Post processing with Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5 and DxO Photolab 3
The Crab Nebula (catalogue designations M1, NGC 1952, Taurus A) is the result of a supernova that was first observed and then recorded in Chinese astronomical writings in the year 1054. The Crab Nebula is found in the constellation Taurus and is about 6,700 light years away. This explosion was so bright that it was visible during daylight hours for over 20 days and remained visible in the night sky for over two years.
Observation data: J2000.0 epoch
Right ascension: 05h 34m 31.94s
Declination: +22° 00′ 52.2″
Distance: 6500 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 8.4
Apparent dimensions (V): 420″ × 290″
Constellation: Taurus
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 4 Hours and 7 Minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: November 2, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
The small planetary nebula IC 2149 was discovered in 1906 by the Scottish-American astronomer Williamina Fleming photographically and visually-spectroscopically with an 8 inch telescope. She was an assistant to Edwart Pickering, an astronomy professor at Harvard University. The physical structure of this bipolar planetary nebula is not yet completely established. It could be a bright ring of gas that we are looking at from the side, or it could be a jet extending northeast and hitting a shock front. The distance to this PN is estimated to be about 1.1 kpc. (ref: www.deepskycorner.ch/obj/ic2149.en.php)
Observation data: J2000.0 epoch
Right ascension: 05h 56m 23.862s
Declination: 46° 06′ 17.5″
Distance: 3586 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 10.6
Apparent dimensions (V): 12″
Constellation: Auriga
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 81 Minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: November 7, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
This image takes the viewer on a deep dive into the heart of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. The Butterfly Nebula, located about 3400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, is one of the best-studied planetary nebulae in our galaxy.
Planetary nebulae are among the most beautiful and most elusive creatures in the cosmic zoo. These nebulae form when stars with masses between about 0.8 and 8 times the mass of the Sun shed most of their mass at the end of their lives. The planetary nebula phase is fleeting, lasting only about 20 000 years.
At the centre of the Butterfly Nebula is the ancient core of a Sun-like star that energises the surrounding nebula and causes it to glow. This scorching central star is hidden from view at optical wavelengths, but Webb’s infrared capabilities have revealed the star and its surroundings in great detail.
This image, which combines infrared data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope with submillimetre observations from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), shows the doughnut-shaped torus and interconnected bubbles of dusty gas that surround the nebula’s central star. The torus is oriented vertically and nearly edge-on from our perspective, and it intersects with bubbles of gas enclosing the star. The bubbles appear bright red in this image, illuminated by the light from helium and neon gas. Outside the bubbles, jets traced by emission from ionised iron shoot off in opposite directions.
These features are labeled in an annotated version of this image.
[Image description: The complicated structure at the centre of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. There is a bright source at the centre that is surrounded by greenish nebulosity and several looping lines in cream, orange and pink. One of these lines appears to form a ring oriented vertically and nearly edge-on around the bright source at the centre. Other lines trace out a figure eight shape. Moving outward from these complex lines and green nebulosity, there is a section of red light on either side of the object. The upper-right and lower-left corners of this image show a purple streak pointing out of the image.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Matsuura, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), N. Hirano, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0
M2-9 is a striking example of a "butterfly" or a bipolar planetary nebula. Another more revealing name might be the "Twin Jet Nebula." If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side of it appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the measured velocity of the gas, in excess of 200 miles per second, astronomers believe that the description as a super-super-sonic jet exhaust is quite apt. This is much the same process that takes place in a jet engine: The burning and expanding gases are deflected by the engine walls through a nozzle to form long, collimated jets of hot air at high speeds. M2-9 is 2,100 light-years away in the constellation Ophiucus. The observation was taken Aug. 2, 1997 by the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. In this image, neutral oxygen is shown in red, once-ionized nitrogen in green, and twice-ionized oxygen in blue.
Credit: NASA
Image Number: PR97-38
Date: August 2, 1997
The Ring Nebula (also cataloged as Messier 57, M57 and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula in the northern constellation of Lyra. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star’s hot core, called a white dwarf. M57 is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.
Right ascension: 18h 53m 35.079s
Declination: +33° 01′ 45.03″
Distance: 2567±115 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 8.8
Apparent dimensions (V): 230″ × 230″
Constellation: Lyra
Tech Specs: Meade 12” LX-90 SCT Telescope, Antares Focal Reducer, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 3 hours 43 minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGX-L pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: July 5, 2025. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
This is the planetary nebula designated NGC 7139 located in the constellation Cepheus.
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 21h 46m 08.586s
Declination: +63° 47′ 29.45″
Apparent magnitude (V): 13
ConstellationCepheus
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 81 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: August 25, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
More and large images in my blog, please, have a look: www.astroanarchy.blogspot.fi/2013/03/the-jones-emberson-1...
largish and very dim, planetary nebula.PK 164+31.1, sometimes known as a "Jones-Emberson 1" has an angular diameter of 6', 67" x 6', 67" and it locates in constellation Lynx. Distance from my home town Oulu, Finland, is about 1600 light years.
The tiny Blue central star is a white dwarf, the intense ultraviolet light emitted by this star makes elements in a ring glow. Ionized Hydrogen emits red light and the ionized Oxygen blue one.
Why the name "PK 164+31.1"?
PK comes from the names of Czechoslovakian astronomers Perek and Kouhutec. 1967 they created an extensive catalog of all of the known planetary nebulae in 1964. The number indicates the position in the sky. The alternative name "Jones-Emberson 1" is after its discoveres.
NGC 6891 is a bright, asymmetrical planetary nebula in the constellation Delphinus, the Dolphin. This Hubble image reveals a wealth of structure, including a spherical outer halo that is expanding faster than the inner nebula, and at least two ellipsoidal shells that are orientated differently. The image also reveals filaments and knots in the nebula’s interior, surrounding the central white dwarf star. From their motions, astronomers estimate that one of the shells is 4,800 years old while the outer halo is some 28,000 years old, indicating a series of outbursts from the dying star at different times.
Hubble studied NGC 6891 as part of efforts to gauge the distances to nebulae, and to learn more about how their structures formed and evolved. NGC 6891 is made up of gas that’s been ionized by the central white dwarf star, which stripped electrons from the nebula’s hydrogen atoms. As the energized electrons revert from their higher-energy state to a lower-energy state by recombining with the hydrogen nuclei, they emit energy in the form of light, causing the nebula’s gas to glow.
Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Hajian (University of Waterloo), H. Bond (Pennsylvania State University), and B. Balick (University of Washington); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
As nuclear fusion engines, most stars live placid lives for hundreds of millions to billions of years. But near the end of their lives they can turn into crazy whirligigs, puffing off shells and jets of hot gas. In this image, planetary nebula NGC 7027 resembles a jewel bug, an insect with a brilliantly colorful metallic shell.
Recently, NGC 7027's central star was identified in a new wavelength of light — near-ultraviolet — for the first time by using Hubble's unique capabilities. The near-ultraviolet observations will help reveal how much dust obscures the star and how hot the star really is.
This object is a visibly diffuse region of gas and dust that may be the result of ejections by closely orbiting binary stars that were first slowly sloughing off material over thousands of years, and then entered a phase of more violent and highly directed mass ejections.
Hubble first looked at this planetary nebula in 1998. By comparing the old and new Hubble observations, researchers now have additional opportunities to study the object as it changes over time.
Planetary nebulas are expanding shells of gas created by dying stars that are shedding their outer layers. When new ejections encounter older ejections, the resulting energetic collisions shape the nebula. The mechanisms underlying such sequences of stellar mass expulsion are far from fully understood, but researchers theorize that binary companions to the central, dying stars play essential roles in shaping them.
For more information, visit:
www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/hubble-provides-holisti...
Credit: NASA, ESA and J. Kastner (RIT)
This image of Caldwell 69 includes ultraviolet, visible, and infrared observations taken in 2019 and 2020 by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 69, see:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2020/news-2020-31
Credit: NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows one of the most complex planetary nebulae ever seen, NGC 6543, nicknamed the "Cat's Eye Nebula." Hubble reveals surprisingly intricate structures including concentric gas shells, jets of high-speed gas and unusual shock-induced knots of gas. Estimated to be 1,000 years old, the nebula is a visual "fossil record" of the dynamics and late evolution of a dying star. A preliminary interpretation suggests that the star might be a double-star system. The suspected companion star also might be responsible for a pair of high-speed jets of gas that lie at right angles to this equatorial ring. If the companion were pulling in material from a neighboring star, jets escaping along the companion's rotation axis could be produced. These jets would explain several puzzling features along the periphery of the gas lobes. Like a stream of water hitting a sand pile, the jets compress gas ahead of them, creating the "curlicue" features and bright arcs near the outer edge of the lobes. The twin jets are now pointing in different directions than these features. This suggests the jets are wobbling, or precessing, and turning on and off episodically. This color picture, taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera-2, is a composite of three images taken at different wavelengths. (red, hydrogen-alpha; blue, neutral oxygen, 6300 angstroms; green, ionized nitrogen, 6584 angstroms). The image was taken on September 18, 1994. NGC 6543 is 3,000 light- years away in the northern constellation Draco. The term planetary nebula is a misnomer; dying stars create these cocoons when they lose outer layers of gas. The process has nothing to do with planet formation, which is predicted to happen early in a star's life.
Credit: J.P. Harrington and K.J. Borkowski (University of Maryland), and NASA/ESA
Image Number: PRC95-01A
Date: September 18, 1994
Narrowband image with Hydrogen alpha filter of the planetary nebula nearest to Earth.
In this image, nuclear fusion has ceased in the central star as the available fuel has run out and the outer layers of the star have been shrugged off.
Gases in the envelope layers glow under the glare of the intense UV light radiating from the White Dwarf remnant of the central star.
Its thought that the NE outer rim (lower right) is glowing more brightly as it encounters interstellar gas and the friction of the collision causes heating.
Within the "eye" of the nebula are hundreds of "comet" shaped features that all point back to the central star - astronomers are uncertain if these represent gas outflows or UV photodissociation of gas.
The central star exploded 10600 years ago - as worked out by reversing the gas flow velocities.
Was looking for a challenge last night and spotted this dim planetary nebula on the charts in the constellation Taurus, didn't know anything about it. Dedicated 27 minutes of exposure time to it (27 x 1 minute) using my 400mm lens and Canon 6D at ISO 4000. Temperatures were in the teens and winds were gusting in the mid-20's. The full image shows the tiny nebula, the image in the upper left is magnified 300% for a closer look, and the image in the lower left is from the 20-inch RC Optical Systems Telescope Operating at f/8.1 at Kitt Peak National Observatory. I'm happy with the results.
La nebulosa planetaria M97 è chiamata anche “Nebulosa Gufo” per via di due macchie scura sulla sua superficie che la fanno rassomigliare alla testa di un gufo.
Si trova nella costellazione dell’Orsa Maggiore e ha un diametro apparente di 3’, circa 10 volte più piccolo della dimensione della luna piena vista ad occhio nudo, mentre la sua distanza è di circa 6000 anni luce.
Al centro della nebulosa è visibile la stella di magnitudine 14 da cui la nebulosa si è originata: è una nana bianca con una temperatura superficiale di 85000 K.
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The planetary nebula M97 is also called the "Owl Nebula" due to two dark spots on its surface that make it resemble the head of an owl.
It is located in the Ursa Major constellation and has an apparent diameter of 3 ', about 10 times smaller than the size of the full moon seen with the naked eye, while its distance is about 6000 light years.
At the center of the nebula is the star of magnitude 14 from which the nebula originated: it is a white dwarf with a surface temperature of 85000 K.
Technical data
Telescope: RC12 GSO Truss (diameter 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm)
Mount: GM2000HPSII
Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MM Pro with Astrodon filters RGB and Ha/OIII 5nm,
Guiding system: ZWO OAG-L with guide camera ASI 174MM
Exposure details:
Ha 16x900" bin3 -20C + 7x900" bin3 -25C, gain 100
OIII 14x900" bin3 -20C + 10x900" bin3 -25C, gain 100
RGB 5x300" bin3 -20C, gain 100 for each channel
Total integration: 13h
Acquisition: Voyager, PHD2
Processing: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, DxO Photolab 3
SQM-L 21.04
Location: Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy), own remote observatory
Date: 23/24 January, 23/26 March 2022
M57 is one of the best known objects in the late summer sky. Its distinctive and easily discernable smoke ring appearance makes it an interesting visual target, setting it apart from the usual smudge most nebulae present to the eyepiece. I venture to say there isn't a single public star party in the late summer or autumn public star party where this object is not observed.
M57 is a planetary nebula. These nebula are so named because to early telescopic astronomers their generally round shape resembled planets. Of course, they knew they weren't planets because they never moved, but the resemblance in small telescopes can be uncanny. These nebulae are actually the result of processes that occur toward the end of a star's nuclear life. If the star is too small to produce a supernova explosion, it simply runs out of fuel. As this happens, the star shrinks and actually becomes hotter in the process, thus blowing off some of its matter, producing fascinating and intricately shaped nebulae.
At first glance, M57 appears to be a relatively simple ring around a relatively bright central star. Careful photographic analysis reveals that this is anything but the case. The bright central region has a complex spiral structure that seems to be wind into a bright red oval shaped shock region. This shock wave is colliding with another fainter layer produced in an earlier weight-loss episode. This second layer has a rich structure, and itself culminates in a shock front as it collides with a very faint third layer from even earlier in the star's slow "death."
It is this third layer I wanted to capture in this image. It's very faint, and so I used longer than normal exposures to see if I could bring it out. At first I thought I had failed, but as I worked on the data I began to see that the third layer was actually there. It's not bright, even in the finished image, but there's no doubt I've captured it. It has a subtle structure that includes the remnants of a shock front that's mostly spent now. Perhaps there is another even fainter layer outside this one that's energizing this shock front. To my knowledge, nobody has ever imaged anything outside of the third layer.
In spite of it's ring-shaped appearance, it's likely this object is a barrel-shaped cylinder. From our vantage point, we are looking into the interior pretty much through the end of the barrel.
Also of note in this image is IC1296, a curiously shaped barred spiral galaxy some 220 million light years behind M57. It has one spiral arm that seems to encircle the entire galaxy, with a vestigial second arm that seems to go nowhere. It adds meaning to the scene. M57 is a single star heading toward the end of its energy production phase. IC1296 contains millions of stars at this same point in their life.
For you astrophotographers, This is 10x1200b1 luminance and 6x900b2 RGB, taken with the Twin City Amateur Astronomers - TCAA 20" Planewave over the last few months when the instrument was not otherwise engaged. While processing this data, I ran across a stack of 7 hydrogen alpha images taken with the 20" in 2014. Each is 1800 seconds long, for a total of 3.5 hours of additional imagery I could add to this one. It adds is a ton of yummy detail in the outer layers. To top it all off, I was able to locate my image from 2013 of SN2013ev, to add that detail to the image.
I have to say I'm quite surprised at how this image turned out. It far exceeds the objective I set before starting this "filler" project, and I'm very pleased with the result.
NGC 1501 (also known as the Camel's Eye Nebula or the Oyster Nebula) is a planetary nebula that can be found in the constellation Camelopardalis (the Giraffe) and is roughly 5,000 light-years away. You can clearly see the internal complexity of this nebula. It has also been referred to as the Oyster Nebula, from the bright central star peeking out of the cloudy shell around it. The surrounding cloud was formed when the central star blasted off its outer shells.
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 04h 06m 59.39s
Declination: +60° 55′ 14.4″
Distance: est. 4,240 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 13.0
Apparent dimensions (V): 0.863' (diameter)
Constellation: Camelopardalis
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 2 Hours and 15 Minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: November 2, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
What a crazy object! Roughly 3,300 light-years away, NGC 6543 also known as the Cat's Eye Nebula. A lot going on in the center, with a VERY hot star, X-Ray emissions, and stellar winds expanding at over 4 million MPH !
My shot: June 2024, Esprit 120mm, QHY268M, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-pro mount. HaOLRGB image, 29hr 38m integration.
The last time we imaged the Ring Nebula was 6 years ago so it was due for a revisit. I like planetary nebulae not just for their vibrant colours and interesting shapes, but also because they are a preview of what will happen to our star, the Sun, in about 6 billion years time.
The Ring Nebula (also catalogued as Messier 57, M57, and NGC 6720) is a planetary nebula 2,570 light-years away in the northern constellation of Lyra. M57 is found south of the bright star Vega, which forms the northwestern vertex of the Summer Triangle asterism. A planetary nebula is formed when a star of intermediate mass, about 1-8 solar masses (like our Sun), during the last stages of its evolution before becoming a white dwarf, expels a vast luminous envelope of ionized gas into the surrounding interstellar space.
The blue-green tinge in the middle is caused by ionized oxygen. The reddish hue on the outer region is caused by hydrogen.
15/06/2023
018 x 480-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
020 x dark frames
020 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 24 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: Zwo ASI 1600MC Pro
x2 Barlow with extension tube (x3.3)
Effective focal length: 2,475 mm f/16.5
Filter: None
Located around 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus (the Swan), Abell 78 is an unusual type of planetary nebula.
After exhausting the nuclear fuel in their cores, stars with a mass of around 0.8 to eight times the mass of our Sun collapse to form dense and hot white dwarf stars. As this process occurs, the dying star will throw off its outer layers of material, forming an elaborate cloud of gas and dust known as a planetary nebula. This phenomenon is not uncommon, and planetary nebulae are a popular focus for astrophotographers because of their often beautiful and complex shapes. However, a few like Abell 78 are the result of a so-called “born again” star.
Although the core of the star has stopped burning hydrogen and helium, a thermonuclear runaway at its surface ejects material at high speeds. This ejecta shocks and sweeps up the material of the old nebula, producing the filaments and irregular shell around the central star seen in this image, which features data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Guerrero; Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-captures-r...
This is the large 9th magnitude blue-green planetary nebula NGC 1360 in Fornax the Furnace. It is also known as the Robin's Egg Nebula.
NGC 1360 is odd in that it is a more uniform disk, not a ring or bi-polar object as are many planetaries. The 11th magnitude central star is visible.
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 1398 is at lower left.
Technical:
This is a stack of 10 x 6 minute exposures with the Askar APO120 refractor at f/7 and with the Canon Ra at ISO 1600. Taken from the Quailway Cottage in southeast Arizona in the pre-dawn hours of October 9, 2024.
Planetary nebula NGC 1514 in visible light from the PanSTARRS survey. Custom stacked and processed to mitigate most of the artifacts that are present in the automatically generated all sky mosaic.
I made this image to compare the incredible difference between the visible light view and the infrared view recently acquired by JWST.
Red: PanSTARRS i
Green: PanSTARRS r
Blue: PanSTARRS g
North is about 7.42° counter-clockwise from up.
This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details of the Ring Nebula.
The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect.
The Ring Nebula is a well-known planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf.
The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. The structure measures roughly one light-year across.
The Hubble observations were taken Sept. 19, 2011, by the Wide Field Camera 3. In the image, the deep blue color in the center represents helium; the cyan color of the inner ring is the glow of hydrogen and oxygen; and the reddish color of the outer ring is from nitrogen and sulfur.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
The Planetary Nebula M57, The Ring Nebula in Lyra.A dying Star blowing off its outer atmosphere..ZWO 174 MM Monochrome Cmos Cooled Camera, & 8 Inch F10 SCT Telesscope, 300 second exposure per RGB,+ Luminance, 16 minutes total
This close-up image showing details in one lobe of Caldwell 69 was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 prior to Hubble’s final servicing mission.
Credit: A. Zijlstra (UMIST) et al., ESA, NASA
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 69, see:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2004/news-2004-46.html
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
This is a crop highlighting the Skull Nebula is located in the constellation Cetus. It is a planetary nebula discovered by William Herschel in 1785. From our vantage point, it has an angular resolution of 3.7 arcmin. The estimated diameter is about 2.3 light years, and is at a distance of 1,600 light years from our planet. The listed magnitude of the nebula is around 11th magnitude, so is has a fairly low surface brightness. Quite often, visual observers can find the foreground stars overpowering. The central star is fairly bright at 11.8 magnitude. The eastern limb of the nebula is brighter suggesting that it is interacting with the interstellar medium. I love how some objects in the cosmos have bow waves reflecting the dynamics of the interstellar medium.
I tried to capture the translucent shell of this planetary nebula. It reminds me of a crystal sphere containing something wonderful at its centre. The teal and red colours within add a nice depth to the image. The galaxy in the top left is NGC 255, a barred spiral galaxy, a distance of 59.16 million light years away, give or take 5 million for an estimate.
The image was captured between Sept-November 2017. I used 6 filters to create the image. Red, Green, Blue, Luminance, Ha, and OIII.
Object Co-ordinates:
Image centre: RA: 00 47 00.659 Dec: -11 50 16.19
Field of view: 53' 40.0" x 35' 46.7"
Resolution: 0.803 arcsec/px
Instruments:
10 Inch RCOS fl 9.1
Astro Physics AP-900 Mount
SBIG STL 11000m
FLI Filter Wheel
Astrodon Lum, Red, Green, Blue Filters
Baader Planetarium H-alpha 7nm Narrowband-Filter
Baader Planetarium O-III 8.5 Narrowband-Filter
Exposure Details:
62 X 900 Bin 1X1 Lum
25 X 450 Bin 2X2 Red
22 X 450 Bin 2X2 Green
20 X 450 Bin 2X2 Blue
5 X 900 Bin 1X1 Ha
10 X 900 Bin 1x1 OIII
Location
Australia, Central Victoria
Imaged from Aug-Oct 201
Full Field View: www.flickr.com/photos/97807083@N00/26521553869/in/photost...
M57 aka NGC 6720 is a Planetary Nebula (nothing to do with planets - long story) and is the outer shell of a red giant star that's coming to the end of its life and expelling its outer gasses (or something like that)
Another M bites the dust, and what a piddling little thing this is! Barely bigger than a fat star, I used 3 x drizzle in DSS so that I could actually see the thing. Not best imaged with an ED80 and budget kit, that's for sure. Never done a PN before :)
Been there, done it :)
NGC 2818 is a planetary nebula located in the southern constellation Pyxis, the Compass. This planetary nebula is relatively small, measuring only 60″ by 30″. Given its size, I thought that drizzling the data and scaling the result by a factor of two might enhance its visibility. Otherwise, it is crazy small. Just look at the size of the stars next to the planetary nebula (PN) for comparison.
I used Luminance (Lum), Red, Green, Blue, O III, and Hα filters to create this colour image. I wanted to retain that wonderful teal colouring found in many PN. Often, the teal colouration is lost by reducing the green channel, resulting in a dominant blue hue. In my view, the accurate teal coloration is aesthetically preferable.
The nebula consists of ionized gas expelled by a dying star in the final stages of its evolution. Its complex three-dimensional morphology includes a bipolar component, filamentary structures, and a knotty central region. Advanced 3D modeling has revealed that the nebula's expansion velocities vary across its components, with the equatorial region expanding at approximately 70 km/s, the bipolar lobes at 120 km/s, and the filamentary structures at about 180 km/s.
The central star of NGC 2818 is expected to cool and fade over billions of years, ultimately becoming a white dwarf. This process offers insights into the future evolution of our own Sun, which is anticipated to undergo similar stages, shedding its outer layers to form a planetary nebula.
Instruments:
Telescope: 10" Ritchey-Chrétien RCOS
Camera: SBIG STXL-11000 Mono
Mount: Astro-Physics AP-900
Focal Length: 2310.00 mm
Pixel size: 9.00 um
Resolution: 0.82 arcsec/pix
Exposures:
Lum 33 X 600
Red 24 X 380
Green 24 X 380
Blue 24 X 380
Ha 60 X1200
OIII 38 X1200
Total exposure: 45.76 Hours
Thanks for looking
This small but surprisingly bright planetary nebula is located in the constellation Andromeda.
I photographed this same nebula a few weeks ago (_ LINK _) using an 80mm refractor working at an effective focal length of 384mm, but here I’ve stepped up to a 9.25” SCT with a 2350mm focal length at f/10.
Image capture was done with a series of five-second-long exposures at ISO 800. The total exposure integration time was ten minutes and fifty-five seconds (131 subs at 5 seconds each). The sky conditions were poor, red-zone light pollution combined with haze.
The telescope was a Celestron C9.25 Edge HD and the capture camera was an unmodified Sony NEX-5N. Image processing was done in PixInsight (drizzle, stacking, and preprocessing) and Photoshop CS5.
All rights reserved.
This is an attempt to capture some of the fainter structures that surround the familiar main body of the Helix Nebula. This includes the "plumes" - the faint extensions to the northwest and southeast, the outer nebula, the so called outer ring, the northeast arc- familiarly known as the "eyebrow", the West outer ring, and hints of Bowshock 1. Unfortunately with this exposure its still a bit noisy around the faint
details- and there is no evidence of some of the even fainter structures such as Bowshock 2 and Meaburns Jet. Perhaps it was overly ambitious to hope to capture these.
This image represents over 24 hours of data collected over 2020 and 2021. To improve on this image I think I would need lots more data than the 23.5 hours in H alpha ( with a Baader 7 nm filter ) and 50 minutes in RGB (with a L extreme filter).
However I am calling a halt now due to some major issues with my optical train which I need to resolve before committing more time to this project. (poor star shapes caused by incorrect spacers)
So this is a place holder till such time as I can return to collect more and hopefully better quality data
Equipment:
EQ6/ ED 80/ William Optics 0.8 focal reducer/ Baader 7nm Halpha Filter / Optolong L Extreme Filter / QHY 183 mm
mono camera/ZWO ASI 183 MC Pro colour camera
Software:
NINA/PHD2/AstroPixel Processor/ Topaz Denoise AI/Photoshop CS6
The Owl Nebula is a planetary nebula located approximately 2,030 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. It is approximately 8000 years old. Despite the name 'Planetary nebula' it has nothing to do with planets and is caused by an old red giant star ejecting its outer layers as it runs out of fuel to burn.
Details
M: Avalon Linear Fast reverse
T: Celestron C9.25
C: Atik 460 EXM with 3nm Ha and OIII filters and luminance filter
14x1800s Ha
22x1800s OIII
19x1200s Lum
Totalling 24 hours 20 minutes of total exposure
This annotated image takes the viewer on a deep dive into the heart of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302, as seen by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope. The Butterfly Nebula, located about 3400 light-years away in the constellation Scorpius, is one of the best-studied planetary nebulae in our galaxy.
Planetary nebulae are among the most beautiful and most elusive creatures in the cosmic zoo. These nebulae form when stars with masses between about 0.8 and 8 times the mass of the Sun shed most of their mass at the end of their lives. The planetary nebula phase is fleeting, lasting only about 20 000 years.
At the centre of the Butterfly Nebula is the ancient core of a Sun-like star that energises the surrounding nebula and causes it to glow. This scorching central star is hidden from view at optical wavelengths, but Webb’s infrared capabilities have revealed the star and its surroundings in great detail.
This image, which combines infrared data from Webb with submillimetre observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), shows the doughnut-shaped torus and interconnected bubbles of dusty gas that surround the nebula’s central star. The torus is oriented vertically and nearly edge-on from our perspective, and it intersects with bubbles of gas enclosing the star. The bubbles appear bright red in this image, illuminated by the light from helium and neon gas. Outside the bubbles, jets traced by emission from ionised iron shoot off in opposite directions.
[Image description: The complicated structure at the centre of the Butterfly Nebula, NGC 6302. There is a bright source at the centre of the image, labeled ‘dying star’. This is surrounded by greenish nebulosity and several looping lines in cream, orange and pink. One of these lines appears to form a ring oriented vertically and nearly edge-on around the bright source at the centre. This ring is labeled in several different places to indicate the near and far sides of a structure called the torus, a dust lane running along the torus and an area where the torus is ionised. Other lines trace out a figure eight shape. These lines are labeled to indicate the inner bubble as well as where the bubble intersects with the torus. Moving outward from these complex lines and green nebulosity, there is a section of red light on either side of the object, labeled ‘outer bubble’. The upper-right and lower-left corners of this image show a purple streak pointing out of the image. These purple streaks are labeled ‘jet’.]
Credits: ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, M. Matsuura, ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), N. Hirano, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb); CC BY 4.0
Strottner-Drechsler 17 (StDr 17) aka Sharpless 2-123 (Sh2-123), sometimes referred to as the “Tick Nebula” or “Flea Nebula”, is a dim planetary nebula previously thought to be an HII region. StDr17 is located approximately 12,000 light years away in the northwestern edge of Cygnus.
I cannot remember how I first stumbled across this target, but I liked it immediately. Well, “liked” in a sense—it reminded me of “Varroa destructor,” the invasive mite that jumped from Apis cerana, the Asian honey bee, to Apis mellifera, the European honey bee, and is responsible for countless colony deaths and many gray hairs on beekeeper heads. Including my own, as I’ve been keeping honey bees for a good while now.
So I had to image it.
Well, it is a challenging target to image, to say the least—my most challenging target to date—and only a handful of images have been shared on AstroBin. After a couple test runs with mixed results, I went on to collect data in June and August of 2021. I’ve been visiting this image in editing, off-and-on, until now, experimenting with new approaches and ideas.
Post-processing done in PixInsight. I stacked separate images for 1) background monochrome narrowband luminance, 2) multi-bandpass narrowband color, 3) and Hydrogen-alpha, and star data captured in 4) monochrome narrowband and 5) color. I returned for star data because the star field is rather dense and I wanted a head start with, clean, tight stars. Stacked images registered, cleaned up, calibrated, background gradient extraction, deconvolution, noise reduction, star reduction, etc. in PixInsight. I separated stars from backgrounds with StarNet and exported everything for editing in Adobe Photoshop. I did some manual noise cleanup (including with Topaz DeNoise), touchups for star removal, star reduction (including blending a couple separate attempts at star reduction), etc., and blended the channels in Adobe Photoshop.
AstroBin Link
I want to extend thanks to AstroEd for his Photoshop narrowband channel blending routine, which I borrowed from (1), and J-P Metsavainio’s tone-mapping routine, which helped a lot in processing background nebulosity around my stars (2).
AstroEd Photoshop Channel Blending
youtu.be/2XpmrjVSmHw (part 1)
J-P Metsavainio Photoshop Tone Mapping
Subject imaged at Antelope Island State Park, Utah, in the United States, between June and August of 2021.
Total Integration Time
- 12 hrs 42 minutes
CEM-40EC, Esprit 80ED, ASI2600MC, RTU
- 2021-06-21, 60x300s, Bortle 4
CEM-40EC, RASA-8, ASI2600MM, NBZ
- 2021-06-22, 18x300s, Bortle 4
CEM-40EC, RASA-8, ASI2600MM, Ha12
- 2021-06-27, 51x300s, Bortle 4
CEM-40EC, Esprit 80ED, ASI2600MM, RTU
- 2021-08-10, 48x60s, Bortle 4
CEM-40EC, Esprit 80ED, ASI2600MC
- 2021-08-11, 69x60s, Bortle 4
Information Sources
Astrobin photos by Goofi and Chris Sullivan.
More Information
planetarynebulae.net/EN/page_np.php?id=739
Planetary Nebula as opposed to HII Region
This is what happens to stars that are about the Sun's mass or a few times higher when they completely run out of fuel. The Blue Snowball Nebula is a planetary nebula in Andromeda. The bluish color corresponds to ionized oxygen that was puffed out into space away from the white dwarf remnant of a star. Pink colors are attributable to hydrogen.
I plate solved the image stack to see that I was shooting at a focal length of 2060 mm. For a Celestron Edge HD 925, this is an effective focal ratio of f/8.8. Guiding was working well (though not perfectly) for such a long focal length, so this is a stack of 139 45s exposures with an Atik 314L+ color CCD with light pollution filter. Images were preprocessed in Nebulosity; registered, stacked, and processed in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop.
The field of view is 12.5' x 9.5'.
The Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76 (M76), NGC 650/651, is a planetary nebula in northern constellation Perseus. Distance to M76 is currently estimated as 780 parsecs or 2,500 light years. The total nebula shines at the apparent magnitude of +10.1. The Little Dumbbell Nebula derives its common name from its resemblance to the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) in Vulpecula. It was originally thought to consist of two separate emission nebulae so bears New General Catalog numbers NGC 650 and 651.
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 108 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInisght. Image Date: July 27, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
NGC 2371-2 is a dual lobed planetary nebula located in the constellation Gemini. Visually, it appears like it could be two separate objects; therefore, two entries were given to the planetary nebula by John Louis Emil Dreyer in the New General Catalogue, so it may be referred to as NGC 2371, NGC 2372, or variations on this name. It has also been called the double bubble nebula.
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 07h 25m 34.7s
Declination: +29° 29′ 25.6”
Distance: 4400 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 13
Apparent dimensions (V): 44
Constellation: Gemini
Designations: NGC 2371, NGC 2372
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at -10F, 108 Minutes using 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: November 7, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
NGC 6781, also known as the Snowglobe Nebula, is a planetary nebula located in the equatorial constellation of Aquila, about 2.5° east-northeast of the 5th magnitude star 19 Aquilae.The nebula lies at a distance of 1,500 ly from the Sun. It has a visual magnitude of 11.4 and spans an angular size of 1.9 × 1.8 arcminutes. The bipolar dust shell of this nebula is believed to be barrel-shaped and is being viewed from nearly pole-on. The magnitude 16.88 central star of the planetary nebula is a white dwarf. (ref: Wikipedia)
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 19h 18m 28.085s
Declination: +06° 32′ 19.29″
Distance: 1,500 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 11.4
Apparent dimensions (V): 1′.9 × 1′.8
Constellation: Aquila
Tech Specs: Orion 8” RC Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 81 x 60 second exposures, Celestron CGEM-DX pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in PixInsight. Image Date: September 8, 2024. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
Abell 78 is an unusual type of planetary nebula. After exhausting the nuclear fuel in their cores, stars with a mass of around 0.8 to 8 times the mass of our Sun collapse to form dense and hot white dwarf stars. As this process occurs, the dying star will throw off its outer layers of material, forming an elaborate cloud of gas and dust known as a planetary nebula. This phenomenon is not uncommon, and planetary nebulae are a popular focus for astrophotographers because of their often beautiful and complex shapes.
However, a few like Abell 78 are the result of a so-called “born again” star. Although the core of the star has stopped burning hydrogen and helium, a thermonuclear runaway at its surface ejects material at high speeds. This ejecta shocks and sweeps up the material of the old nebula, producing the filaments and irregular shell around the central star.
Abell 78 is located around 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus (The Swan).
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Guerrero
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2111a/
Saw this lovely little planetary nebula in the news today for its closely orbiting binary star system, and realized I hadn't processed it.
ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/research-highlights/ultra-close-...
For the academically interested, an astronomical paper on that is available here:
academic.oup.com/mnrasl/article/482/1/L75/5064238
h/t: Daniel Fischer
Did things a little differently for this one. Used the c0f FITS files from MAST instead of the processed ones from the HLA. The results seem a bit cleaner. That means this image is not geometrically corrected, but the WFPC2/PC detector is such a tiny field of view that it doesn't matter much. It also means the pixel scale is different from all the HLA processed imagery, which does matter. I've noted it below.
Data from Proposal 6347 were used to create this image.
A Search for Jets in Planetary Nebulae
Pixel scale at full size (636x614 px) is 0.04554" per pixel
Red: WFPC2/PC F658N
Green: Pseudo
Blue: WFPC2/PC F656N
North is up.
M2-9 is a striking example of a "butterfly" or a bipolar planetary nebula. Another more revealing name might be the "Twin Jet Nebula." If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side of it appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the measured velocity of the gas, in excess of 200 miles per second, astronomers believe that the description as a super-supersonic jet exhaust is quite apt. Ground-based studies have shown that the nebula's size increases with time, suggesting that the stellar outburst that formed the lobes occurred just 1,200 years ago.
The central star in M2-9 is known to be one of two very close stars that orbit one another at perilously close distances. It is even possible that one star is being engulfed by the other. Astronomers suspect the gravity of one star pulls weakly bound gas from the surface of the other and flings it into a thin, dense disk that surrounds both stars and extends well into space.
The disk can actually be seen in shorter exposure images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. It measures approximately 10 times the diameter of Pluto's orbit. Models of the type that are used to design jet engines ("hydrodynamics") show that such a disk can successfully account for the jet-exhaust-like appearance of M2-9. The high-speed wind from one of the stars rams into the surrounding disk, which serves as a nozzle. The wind is deflected in a perpendicular direction and forms the pair of jets that we see in the nebula's image. This is much the same process that takes place in a jet engine: The burning and expanding gases are deflected by the engine walls through a nozzle to form long, collimated jets of hot air at high speeds.
For more information please visit:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/1997/news-1997-38.html
Credit: NASA, Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Vincent Icke (Leiden University, the Netherlands), and Garrelt Mellema (Stockholm University)
Many of the Caldwell objects are millions of light-years distant, but Caldwell 63 is right in our cosmic neighborhood — only about 650 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. Also cataloged as NGC 7293, Caldwell 63 is commonly called the Helix Nebula. It is a planetary nebula of gigantic proportions, with its bright ring stretching across nearly 3 light-years and dimmer, outer features extending even farther. Planetary nebulae like this one have no actual connection to planets but are called that because many of them have disk-like shapes that look like planets when viewed through small telescopes. They are produced as a medium-mass star dies and sloughs off its outer gaseous layers. These layers are expelled into space at astonishing speeds and glow from the energy given off by the dying star. The Helix Nebula is one of the closest planetary nebulae to Earth, giving scientists a detailed look at this type of stellar demise.
Because it is so close, the Helix Nebula appears to be nearly half the width of the full moon. So to capture this view, Hubble astronomers had to take several exposures using the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which were then combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation’s 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. The colors in the image correspond to glowing oxygen (blue) and hydrogen and nitrogen (red).
Through Hubble’s observations of the nebula, scientists have made some startling discoveries. It seems that the Helix Nebula isn’t doughnut-shaped, as it appears. Instead it consists of two disks that are nearly perpendicular to each other — the inner part (the blue region in Hubble’s image) is “tipped” relative to the outer ring. Hubble has also imaged comet-like tendrils that form a pattern around the central star like the spokes on a wagon wheel. While these comet-like features were not a new discovery, Hubble has revealed that the gaseous knots likely result from a collision between gases. The dying star spews hot gas from its surface, which crashes into the cooler gas that it ejected 10,000 years before. Eventually the knots will dissipate into the cold blackness of interstellar space.
Discovered by German astronomer Karl Ludwig Harding in 1823, the Helix Nebula is a favorite target for amateur astronomers. It is best viewed in the early spring from the Southern Hemisphere, but can be found low in the autumn sky from the Northern Hemisphere. With a magnitude of 7.3, it can be seen with a small telescope or even binoculars under dark skies. A nebula filter will increase the contrast and offer even better views.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 63, see:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2003/news-2003-11.h...
Credit: NASA, NOAO, ESA, the Hubble Helix Nebula Team, M. Meixner (STScI), and T.A. Rector (NRAO)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
A giant cosmic necklace glows brightly in this Hubble Space Telescope image. The object, aptly named the Necklace Nebula, is a recently discovered planetary nebula, the glowing remains of an ordinary, Sun-like star. The nebula consists of a bright ring, measuring about two light-years across, dotted with dense, bright knots of gas that resemble diamonds in a necklace. The knots glow brightly due to absorption of ultraviolet light from the central stars.
A pair of tightly orbiting stars produced the nebula, also called PN G054.2-03.4. The pair are so close ― only several million miles apart ― that they can only be distinguished as a single white dot in this image. The stars are furiously whirling around each other, completing an orbit in a little more than a day.
About 10,000 years ago, one of the aging stars ballooned to the point where it engulfed its companion star. The smaller star continued orbiting inside its larger companion, increasing the giant’s rotation rate and causing the bloated star to spin so fast that a large part of its gaseous envelope expanded into space. Most of the gas escaped along the star’s equator, producing a ring. The bright knots are dense gas clumps in the ring.
The Necklace Nebula is located 15,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagitta (The Arrow). In this composite image, Hubble captured the glow of hydrogen (blue), oxygen (green), and nitrogen (red).
Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw1133a/
IC 1295 is a planetary nebula located in the constellation Scutum. IC 1295 is a small, green nebula with a low magnitude of 12.7. It is made up of multiple envelopes of gas surrounding a low luminosity star (white dwarf) at the end of its life.
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension: 18h 54m 37.206s
Declination: −08° 49′ 39.08″
Distance: 4700 ly
Apparent magnitude (V): 12.7
Apparent dimensions (V): 1.7 × 1.4 arcmin
Constellation: Scutum
Tech Specs: Sky-Watcher Esprit 120ED Telescope, ZWO ASI2600MC camera running at 0F, 54x60 seconds guided exposures, Sky-Watcher EQ6R-Pro pier mounted, ZWO EAF and ASIAir Pro, processed in DSS and PixInsight. Image Date: August 11, 2023. Location: The Dark Side Observatory (W59), Weatherly, PA, USA (Bortle Class 4).
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope 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 center 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 center 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 funneled toward its poles, with the help of the companion, creating the distinctive double-lobed structure seen in nebulae such as M1-63.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, L. Stanghellini
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2021/hubble-takes-port...
Huge waves are sculpted in this two-lobed nebula called the Red Spider Nebula (or NGC 6537), located some 3,000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. This warm planetary nebula harbors one of the hottest stars known, and the star's powerful stellar winds generate waves 100 billion kilometers (62.4 billion miles) high. The waves are caused by supersonic shocks, formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. The atoms caught in the shock emit the spectacular radiation seen in this image.
For more information, visit: spacetelescope.org/images/heic0109a/
Credit: ESA/Garrelt Mellema (Leiden University, the Netherlands)