Media Information
 
 
 
Collection:
NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day Collection
Title:
Hen-1357: New Born Nebula
Explanation:
This Hubble Space Telescope picture [ http://oposite.stsc…] shows Hen-1357, the youngest known planetary nebula [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. Graceful, gentle curves and symmetry suggest its popular name [ http://greeceny.com…] - The Stingray Nebula [ http://oposite.stsc…]. Observations in the 1970s detected no nebular material, but this image from March 1996 clearly shows the Stingray's emerging bubbles and rings of shocked and ionized gas [ http://oposite.stsc…]. The gas is energized by the hot central star as it nears the end of its life, evolving toward a final white dwarf phase [ http://antwrp.gsfc.…]. The image also shows a companion star (at about 10 o'clock) within the nebula. Astronomers suspect that such companions account for the complex shapes and rings [ http://www.astro.wa…] of this and many other planetary nebulae. This cosmic infant is about 130 times the size of our own solar system and growing. It is 18,000 light-years distant, in the southern constellation Ara [ http://www.astro.wi…constellations/Ara.h tml ].
Credit and Copyright:
M. Bobrowsky (OSC [ http://www.orbital.…]), NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/]
keyword:
planetary nebula
keyword:
white dwarf
facet_when:
March 1996
facet_where:
Washington
facet_where:
Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)
facet_what:
Ara
facet_what:
nebula
facet_what:
Hubble Space Telescope (HST)
facet_when_year:
1996
original url:
http://antwrp.gsfc.…
UID:
SPD-APOD-ap980403

Hen-1357: New Born Nebula
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