Waving goodbye

Esahubble_potw1540a_1024

esahubble_potw1540a October 5th, 2015

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier

This planetary nebula is called PK 329-02.2 and is located in the constellation of Norma in the southern sky. It is also sometimes referred to as Menzel 2, or Mz 2, named after the astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered the nebula in 1922. When stars that are around the mass of the Sun reach their final stages of life, they shed their outer layers into space, which appear as glowing clouds of gas called planetary nebulae. The ejection of mass in stellar burnout is irregular and not symmetrical, so that planetary nebulae can have very complex shapes. In the case of Menzel 2 the nebula forms a winding blue cloud that perfectly aligns with two stars at its centre. In 1999 astronomers discovered that the star at the upper right is in fact the central star of the nebula, and the star to the lower left is probably a true physical companion of the central star. For tens of thousands of years the stellar core will be cocooned in spectacular clouds of gas and then, over a period of a few thousand years, the gas will fade away into the depths of the Universe. The curving structure of Menzel 2 resembles a last goodbye before the star reaches its final stage of retirement as a white dwarf. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Serge Meunier.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1540a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
PK 329-02.2
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Esahubble_potw1540a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 16h 14m 32.7s
DEC = -54° 57’ 2.8”
Orientation
North is 48.3° CW
Field of View
0.6 x 0.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Norma

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC2) Optical (555W) 541.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Infrared (814W) 797.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC2) Optical (555W) 541.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (814W) 794.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1540a_1280
×
ID
potw1540a
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
PK 329-02.2
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier
Release Date
2015-10-05T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1540a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC2, WFPC2, WFC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
555W, 814W, 555W, 814W
Central Wavelength
541, 797, 541, 794
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
243.636150593, -54.9507685363
Reference Dimension
670.0, 668.0
Reference Pixel
335.0, 334.0
Scale
-1.3873085768e-05, 1.3873085768e-05
Rotation
-48.26
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
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
potw1540a
Metadata Date
2015-06-17T12:02:06+02:00
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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