Uncovering the Veil Nebula

Esahubble_heic0712c_1024

esahubble_heic0712c July 31st, 2007

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgment: J. Hester (Arizona State University)

This image shows a beautiful portion of the Veil Nebula - the shattered remains of a supernova that exploded some 5-10,000 years ago. The intertwined rope-like filaments of gas result from the enormous amounts of energy released as the fast-moving debris from the explosion ploughs into its surroundings and creates shock fronts. The image displays two characteristic features: sharp filaments and diffuse emission. These correspond to two different viewing geometries: sharp filaments correspond to an edge-on view of a shock front, and diffuse emission corresponds to a face-on view of it. This image is a small portion of the Veil located in the western part of the Veil (to the left in the overview image). The entire structure spans about 3 degrees, corresponding to about 6 full moons. The image was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) on board the Hubble Space Telescope. The colour is produced by composite of three different images. The different colours indicate emission from different kinds of atoms excited by the shock: blue shows oxygen, green shows sulphur, and red shows hydrogen.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0712c/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, 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
Cygnus Loop NGC 6960 Veil Nebula
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Supernova Remnant
Esahubble_heic0712c_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 20h 56m 18.1s
DEC = 30° 21’ 55.1”
Orientation
North is 22.3° CW
Field of View
2.5 x 1.3 arcminutes
Constellation
Cygnus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (Oiii) 502.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (Sii) 673.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_heic0712c_1280
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ID
heic0712c
Subject Category
B.4.1.4  
Subject Name
Cygnus Loop, NGC 6960, Veil Nebula
Credits
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgment: J. Hester (Arizona State University)
Release Date
2007-07-31T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0712c/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Oiii, Sii, H-alpha
Central Wavelength
502, 673, 656
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
314.075577862, 30.3652967353
Reference Dimension
1494.0, 753.0
Reference Pixel
747.0, 376.5
Scale
-2.76942079872e-05, 2.76942079872e-05
Rotation
-22.320000000000011
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
heic0712c
Metadata Date
2007-07-30T12:40:07+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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