Supernova Shock Wave Paints Cosmic Portrait
esahubble_opo0316a June 5th, 2003
Credit: NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Remnants from a star that exploded thousands of years ago created a celestial abstract portrait, as captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the Pencil Nebula. Officially known as NGC 2736, the Pencil Nebula is part of the huge Vela supernova remnant, located in the southern constellation Vela. Discovered by Sir John Herschel in the 1840s, the nebula's linear appearance triggered its popular name. The nebula's shape suggests that it is part of the supernova shock wave that recently encountered a region of dense gas. It is this interaction that causes the nebula to glow, appearing like a rippled sheet.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0316a/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- opo0316a
- Subject Category
- B.4.1.4
- Subject Name
- NGC 2736, Pencil Nebula
- Credits
- NASA/ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
- Release Date
- 2003-06-05T15:00:00
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo0316a/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Distance in light years from: www.ias.ac.in/jarch/jaa/12/199-211.pdf
- Facility
- Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
- Instrument
- ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS
- Color Assignment
- Red, Red, Green, Green, Blue
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- i, H-alpha + Nii, V, OIII, B
- Central Wavelength
- 775, 658, 555, 502, 435
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 135.080250495, -45.9165627962
- Reference Dimension
- 3289.0, 3252.0
- Reference Pixel
- 1646.0, 1627.0
- Scale
- -1.66534333779e-05, 1.66534333779e-05
- Rotation
- 4.9999999999999956
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- ESA/Hubble
- URL
- http://www.spacetelescope.org/
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
- City
- Garching bei München
- State/Province
- Postal Code
- D-85748
- Country
- Germany
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- ESA/Hubble
- Publisher ID
- esahubble
- Resource ID
- opo0316a
- Resource URL
- http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/original/opo0316a.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2003-12-09T17:24:39+01:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
