A bowshock Nebula near the neutron star RXJ 18565-3754

Eso_eso0029a_1024

eso_eso0029a September 11th, 2000

Credit: ESO

False-colour composite photo of the sky field with the lonely neutron star RX J1856.5-3754 and the related cone-shaped nebula. It is based on a series of exposures obtained with the multi-mode FORS2 instrument at VLT KUEYEN through three different optical filters: R (29 exposures of 136 sec each; ~1.1 hrs total; here rendered as green); H-alpha (19; 1020 sec; ~5.5 hrs; red); and B (10; 138 sec; ~0.4 hrs; blue). The seeing was good to excellent during the exposures (0.66 arcsec on average). The trails of some moving objects, most likely asteroids in the solar system, are seen in the field with intermittent blue, green and red colours. The large field measures 6.6 x 6.7 arcmin 2, with 0.2 arcsec/pixel. North is to the lower right and East is upper right. The motion of the neutron star as seen on the sky (see the text) is towards East, exactly in the direction indicated by the nebula.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0029a/

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
RX J1856.5-3754
Subject - Milky Way
Star > Evolutionary Stage > Neutron Star

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (FORS2) Optical (H-alpha) -
Green VLT (FORS2) Optical (R) -
Blue VLT (FORS2) Optical (B) -
Eso_eso0029a_1280
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ID
eso0029a
Subject Category
B.3.1.9  
Subject Name
RX J1856.5-3754
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2000-09-11T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0029a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS2, FORS2, FORS2
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha, R, B
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
1975.0, 1995.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
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
eso0029a
Metadata Date
2008-12-19T14:38:59+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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