Hubble offers a dazzling necklace

Esahubble_potw1133a_1024

esahubble_potw1133a August 15th, 2011

Credit: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

A giant cosmic necklace glows brightly in this NASA/ESA 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. About 25 000 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, so that the bloated star span 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 pair is so close, only a few million kilometres apart, that they appear as one bright dot in the centre of this image. The stars are furiously whirling around each other, completing an orbit in a little more than a day. For comparison, Mercury, the innermost planet of our Solar System, orbits the Sun in 88 days.The Necklace Nebula is located 15 000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagitta (The Arrow). In this composite image, taken on 2 July, Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 captured the glow of hydrogen (blue), oxygen (green), and nitrogen (red). Editor's note (March 2024): The figure "25 000 years ago" was corrected from 10 000 years. 

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw1133a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Necklace Nebula PN G054.2-03.4
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Esahubble_potw1133a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 19h 43m 59.3s
DEC = 17° 9’ 4.0”
Orientation
North is 88.6° CW
Field of View
1.7 x 1.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagitta

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (OIII) 502.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (NII) 658.0 nm
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Optical (B) 438.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Purple
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1133a_1280
×
ID
potw1133a
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
Necklace Nebula, PN G054.2-03.4
Credits
NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Release Date
2011-08-15T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw1133a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red, Purple, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
OIII, H-alpha, NII, B, V, I
Central Wavelength
502, 656, 658, 438, 555, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
295.997273204, 17.1511138886
Reference Dimension
5220.0, 3747.0
Reference Pixel
2610.0, 1873.0
Scale
-5.53959459971e-06, 5.53959459971e-06
Rotation
-88.639999999999958
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1133a
Metadata Date
2024-03-21T19:58:57.817973
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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