Media Information

 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf
Explanation:
Like a butterfly, a white dwarf star begins its life by casting off a cocoon that enclosed its former self. In this analogy, however, the Sun would be a caterpillar and the ejected shell of gas would become the prettiest of all! The above cocoon, the planetary nebula designated NGC 2440, contains one of the hottest white dwarf stars known. The white dwarf [ http://www.sciencen…] can be seen as the bright dot near the photo's center. Our Sun will eventually become a "white dwarf butterfly", but not for another 5 billion years. The above false color image [ http://presto.stsci…] and was post-processed by Forrest Hamilton [ http://heritage.sts…].
Credit and Copyright:
H. Bond (STScI), R. Ciardullo (PSU), WFPC2, HST, NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
keyword:
planetary nebula
keyword:
white dwarf
keyword:
NGC 2440
facet_where:
Hamilton
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
Sun
facet_what:
dwarf
facet_what:
white dwarf
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
facet_what:
New General Catalogue (NGC)
original url:
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap010805

NGC 2440: Cocoon of a New White Dwarf