| NASA Center: |
Hubble Space Telescope Center |
|---|
| Image # : |
PR99-01 |
|---|
| Date : |
10/01/1998
|
|---|
|
Title
The Ring Nebula
Full Description
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the sharpest view yet of
the most famous of all planetary nebulae, the Ring Nebula (M57). In
this October 1998 image, the telescope has looked down a barrel of gas
cast off by a dying star thousands of years ago.
This photo reveals elongated dark clumps of material embedded in the
gas at the edge of the nebula; the dying central star floating in a
blue haze of hot gas. The nebula is about a light-year in diameter and
is located some 2,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the
constellation Lyra.
The colors are approximately true colors. The color image was assembled
from three black-and-white photos taken through different color filters
with the Hubble telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Blue
isolates emission from very hot helium, which is located primarily
close to the hot central star. Green represents ionized oxygen, which
is located farther from the star. Red shows ionized nitrogen, which is
radiated from the coolest gas, located farthest from the star.
The gradations of color illustrate how the gas glows because it is
bathed in ultraviolet radiation from the remnant central star, whose
surface temperature is a white-hot 216,000 degrees Fahrenheit (120,000
degrees Celsius).
Keywords
Hubble Space Telescope HST Nebula M57 Lyra Wide Field Planetary Camera WFPC
Subject Category
Deep Space Studies, Hubble,
Reference Numbers
- Center:
HSTI
- Center Number:
PR99-01
- GRIN DataBase Number:
GPN-2000-000964
Source Information
- Creator/Photographer: NASA The Hubble Heritage Team, STScI, AURA ODThe Ring Nebula
- Original Source: DIGITAL
| Resolution | Format | Width
(Pixels) | Height
(Pixels) | Size
(KBytes) |
Thumbnail |
.jpg |
73 |
74 |
9 |
Small |
.jpg |
518 |
529 |
120 |
Medium |
.jpg |
1215 |
1241 |
700 |
Large |
.jpg |
1215 |
1241 |
701 |
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Updated October 31, 2002
• History Questions: NASA History Office
• Responsible NASA Official: Steve Garber
• Author: Michael Hahn. Editor: Dwayne A. Day
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