From Cosmic Spare Tyre to Ethereal Blossom

Eso_potw1242a_1024

eso_potw1242a October 15th, 2012

Credit: ESO

IC 5148 is a beautiful planetary nebula located some 3000 light-years away in the constellation of Grus (The Crane). The nebula has a diameter of a couple of light-years, and it is still growing at over 50 kilometres per second — one of the fastest expanding planetary nebulae known. The term “planetary nebula” arose in the 19th century, when the first observations of such objects — through the small telescopes available at the time — looked somewhat like giant planets. However, the true nature of planetary nebulae is quite different. When a star with a mass similar to or a few times more than that of our Sun approaches the end of its life, its outer layers are thrown off into space. The expanding gas is illuminated by the hot remaining core of the star at the centre, forming the planetary nebula, which often takes on a beautiful, glowing shape.  When observed with a smaller amateur telescope, this particular planetary nebula shows up as a ring of material, with the star — which will cool to become a white dwarf — shining in the middle of the central hole. This appearance led astronomers to nickname IC 5148 the Spare Tyre Nebula. The ESO Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera (EFOSC2) on the New Technology Telescope at La Silla gives a somewhat more elegant view of this object. Rather than looking like a spare tyre, the nebula resembles ethereal blossom with layered petals.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1242a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IC 5148
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Eso_potw1242a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 21h 59m 35.2s
DEC = -39° 23’ 8.1”
Orientation
North is 0.9° CCW
Field of View
4.2 x 4.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Grus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red NTT (EFOSC2) Optical (H-alpha) -
Orange NTT (EFOSC2) Optical (R) -
Green NTT (EFOSC2) Optical (V) -
Blue NTT (EFOSC2) Optical (H-beta) -
Blue NTT (EFOSC2) Optical (B) -
Eso_potw1242a_1280
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ID
potw1242a
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
IC 5148
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2012-10-15T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw1242a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
New Technology Telescope, New Technology Telescope, New Technology Telescope, New Technology Telescope, New Technology Telescope
Instrument
EFOSC2, EFOSC2, EFOSC2, EFOSC2, EFOSC2
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Green, Blue, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha, R, V, H-beta, B
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
329.896709, -39.385596
Reference Dimension
1042.0, 1041.0
Reference Pixel
496.933732634, 530.138947194
Scale
-6.68724e-05, 6.68724e-05
Rotation
0.89644739763
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.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
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw1242a
Metadata Date
2012-11-11T14:31:34+01:00
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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