Masquerading as a double star

Esahubble_potw1312a_1024

esahubble_potw1312a March 25th, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Josh Barrington

The object in this image is Jonckheere 900 or J 900, a planetary nebula glowing shells of ionised gas pushed out by a dying star. Discovered in the early 1900s by astronomer Robert Jonckheere, the dusty nebula is small but fairly bright, with a relatively evenly spread central region surrounded by soft wispy edges. Despite the clarity of this Hubble image, the two objects in the picture above can be confusing for observers. J 900s nearby companion, a faint star in the constellation of Gemini, often causes problems for observers because it is so close to the nebula when seeing conditions are bad, this star seems to merge into J 900, giving it an elongated appearance. Hubbles position above the Earths atmosphere means that this is not an issue for the space telescope. Astronomers have also mistakenly reported observations of a double star in place of these two objects, as the planetary nebula is quite small and compact. J 900s central star is only just visible in this image, and is very faint fainter than the nebulas neighbour. The nebula appears to display a bipolar structure, where there are two distinct lobes of material emanating from its centre, enclosed by a bright oval disc. A version of this image was entered into the Hubbles Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Josh Barrington.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1312a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Jonckheere 900 PN G194.2+02.5
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Esahubble_potw1312a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 6h 25m 57.1s
DEC = 17° 47’ 27.9”
Orientation
North is 46.1° CW
Field of View
0.5 x 0.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Gemini

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (O III) 502.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC2) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (H-alpha) 658.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1312a_1280
×
ID
potw1312a
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
Jonckheere 900, PN G194.2+02.5
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Josh Barrington
Release Date
2013-03-25T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1312a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
O III, V, H-alpha
Central Wavelength
502, 555, 658
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
96.4880518192, 17.7910950011
Reference Dimension
568.0, 586.0
Reference Pixel
284.0, 293.0
Scale
-1.3856960728e-05, 1.3856960728e-05
Rotation
-46.140000000000043
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
potw1312a
Metadata Date
2013-01-18T10:35:51+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
×

 

Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

Providers | Sign In