Little gem

Esahubble_potw1531a_1024

esahubble_potw1531a August 3rd, 2015

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.com)

This colourful bubble is a planetary nebula called NGC 6818, also known as the Little Gem Nebula. It is located in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer), roughly 6000 light-years away from us. The rich glow of the cloud is just over half a light-year across humongous compared to its tiny central star but still a little gem on a cosmic scale. When stars like the Sun enter retirement, they shed their outer layers into space to create glowing clouds of gas called planetary nebulae. This ejection of mass is uneven, and planetary nebulae can have very complex shapes. NGC 6818 shows knotty filament-like structures and distinct layers of material, with a bright and enclosed central bubble surrounded by a larger, more diffuse cloud. Scientists believe that the stellar wind from the central star propels the outflowing material, sculpting the elongated shape of NGC 6818. As this fast wind smashes through the slower-moving cloud it creates particularly bright blowouts at the bubbles outer layers. Hubble previously imaged this nebula back in 1997 with its Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, using a mix of filters that highlighted emission from ionised oxygen and hydrogen (opo9811h). This image, while from the same camera, uses different filters to reveal a different view of the nebula. A version of the image was submitted to the Hubbles Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1531a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Little Gem Nebula NGC 6818
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Esahubble_potw1531a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 19h 43m 58.0s
DEC = -14° 9’ 13.7”
Orientation
North is 32.9° CW
Field of View
0.5 x 0.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical 658.0 nm
Orange Hubble (WFPC2) Optical 656.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFPC2) Optical 502.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical 487.0 nm
Magenta Hubble (WFPC2) Optical 437.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Cyan
Blue
Magenta
Esahubble_potw1531a_1280
×
ID
potw1531a
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
Little Gem Nebula, NGC 6818
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.com)
Release Date
2015-08-03T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1531a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Cyan, Blue, Magenta
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
658, 656, 502, 487, 437
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
295.991751632, -14.1538081624
Reference Dimension
678.0, 684.0
Reference Pixel
339.0, 342.0
Scale
-1.33699290868e-05, 1.33699290868e-05
Rotation
-32.919999999999959
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Data is calculated based on Simbad coordinates! Using this image as an overlay on a DSS background, a 5 arcsec (or so) difference is expected to be seen!
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
potw1531a
Metadata Date
2015-03-20T17:05:13+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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