| NASA Center: |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|---|
| Image # : |
PR00-07 |
|---|
| Date : |
01/24/2000
|
|---|
|
Title
Hubble Reopens Eye on the Universe
Full Description
In its first glimpse of the heavens following the successful December
1999 servicing mission, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captured a
majestic view of a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a dying,
Sun-like star. This stellar relic, first spied by William Herschel in
1787, is nicknamed the "Eskimo" Nebula (NGC 2392) because, when viewed
through ground-based telescopes, it resembles a face surrounded by a
fur parka.
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.
The Eskimo Nebula is about 5,000 light-years from Earth in the
constellation Gemini. The picture was taken Jan. 10 and 11, 2000, with
the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. The nebula's glowing gases
produce the colors in this image: nitrogen (red), hydrogen (green),
oxygen (blue), and helium (violet).
Keywords
Hubble Space Telescope HST Eskimo Nebula Red Giant Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 WFPC
Subject Category
Deep Space Studies, Hubble,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HSTI
- Center Number:
PR00-07
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-000882
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA, A.Fruchter, ERO Team, STScI
- Original Source: DIGITAL
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
Thumbnail |
.jpg |
90 |
90 |
11 |
Small |
.jpg |
640 |
640 |
235 |
Medium |
.jpg |
1500 |
1500 |
1,294 |
Large |
.jpg |
1500 |
1500 |
1,294 |
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Updated October 31, 2002
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
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