The NASA Hubble Space Telescope (HST) has imaged N66, a planetary nebula in the Large Magellanic Cloud (a satellite galaxy of our own Milky Way galaxy). The image was obtained at 10:41 p.m. EDT on June 26, 1991, using the European Space Agency's Faint Object Camera. This HST image is being presented on Thursday, January 16 at the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Georgia. This is the first time a planetary nebula has ever been seen so clearly in a galaxy beyond our own Milky Way. The nebula N66 is located 169,000 light-years away. The FOC image reveals complex structures and details as small as 0.08 light-years across (0.1 arcsecond resolution). None of these structures had ever been seen with ground-based telescopes. Although such an asymmetric structure had been anticipated based upon spectroscopic data taken with ground-based telescopes, the observed patterns are unprecedented. The FOC exposure lasted for just 540 seconds and was made through a filter which isolated the light of doubly ionized oxygen (5007 Angstroms). The image has been sharpened by computer image reconstruction, though all the structures are clearly evident in the raw image. The brightest part of the nebula has an angular diameter of about 2.4 arcseconds, which corresponds to a size of 1.9 light-years. The nebula was ejected by a luminous red giant star, which subsequently contracted to form a blue remnant star. Located at the center of the image, this remnant star ionizes the nebula, causing it to glow at visible and ultraviolet wavelengths. The star is destined to become a white dwarf. Individual lobes of the nebulosity are expanding from the center with velocities of up to one quarter million miles per hour (100 kilometers per second).
Credits
Credit: J.C. Blades/NASA/ESA| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | N66 |
| R.A. Position | 05h 36m 20.5s |
| Dec. Position | -67° 18' 14.0" |
| About The Object | |
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| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
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| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
