Hubble Captures a Ring

stsci_2013-13b May 23rd, 2013

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)- ESA/Hubble Collaboration

This close-up, visible-light view by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals new details of the Ring Nebula. The object is tilted toward Earth so that astronomers see the ring face-on. The Hubble observations reveal that the nebula's shape is more complicated than astronomers thought. The blue gas in the nebula's center is actually a football-shaped structure that pierces the red doughnut-shaped material. Hubble also uncovers the detailed structure of the dark, irregular knots of dense gas embedded along the inner rim of the ring. The knots look like spokes in a bicycle. The Hubble images have allowed the research team to match up the knots with the spikes of light around the bright, main ring, which are a shadow effect. The Ring Nebula is a well-known planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a Sun-like star. The tiny white dot in the center of the nebula is the star's hot core, called a white dwarf. The nebula is about 2,000 light-years away in the constellation Lyra. The structure measures roughly one light-year across. The Hubble observations were taken Sept. 19, 2011, by the Wide Field Camera 3. In the image, the deep blue color in the center represents helium; the cyan color of the inner ring is the glow of hydrogen and oxygen; and the reddish color of the outer ring is from nitrogen and sulfur.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2013/news-2013-13

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

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