File:M57 The Ring Nebula.JPG

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Summary

NASA's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope" class="extiw" title="en:Hubble Space Telescope">Hubble Space Telescope</a> has captured the sharpest view yet of the most famous of all planetary nebulae: the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Nebula" class="extiw" title="en:Ring Nebula">Ring Nebula</a> (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 2000 light-years from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth" class="extiw" title="en:Earth">Earth</a> in the direction of the constellation <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyra" class="extiw" title="en:Lyra">Lyra</a>.

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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Field_Planetary_Camera_2" class="extiw" title="en:Wide Field Planetary Camera 2">Wide Field Planetary Camera 2</a>. Blue isolates emission from very hot <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/helium" class="extiw" title="en:helium">helium</a>, which is located primarily close to the hot central star. Green represents ionized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oxygen" class="extiw" title="en:oxygen">oxygen</a>, which is located farther from the star. Red shows ionized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nitrogen" class="extiw" title="en:nitrogen">nitrogen</a>, 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 120,000 degrees Celsius (216,000 degrees Fahrenheit).

Licensing

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File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current22:31, 6 January 2017Thumbnail for version as of 22:31, 6 January 20171,215 × 1,241 (631 KB)127.0.0.1 (talk)<p>NASA's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope" class="extiw" title="en:Hubble Space Telescope">Hubble Space Telescope</a> has captured the sharpest view yet of the most famous of all planetary nebulae: the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_Nebula" class="extiw" title="en:Ring Nebula">Ring Nebula</a> (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 2000 light-years from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth" class="extiw" title="en:Earth">Earth</a> in the direction of the constellation <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyra" class="extiw" title="en:Lyra">Lyra</a>. </p> <p>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 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_Field_Planetary_Camera_2" class="extiw" title="en:Wide Field Planetary Camera 2">Wide Field Planetary Camera 2</a>. Blue isolates emission from very hot <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/helium" class="extiw" title="en:helium">helium</a>, which is located primarily close to the hot central star. Green represents ionized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/oxygen" class="extiw" title="en:oxygen">oxygen</a>, which is located farther from the star. Red shows ionized <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/nitrogen" class="extiw" title="en:nitrogen">nitrogen</a>, 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 120,000 degrees Celsius (216,000 degrees Fahrenheit). </p>
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