This planet nebula, known as N66, was ejected by a luminous red giant star. The star subsequently shrank to create the blue remnant at the center of the nebula. Ultimately it will become a white dwarf. Radiation from this star ionizes the nebula, causing it to glow with both visible and ultraviolet light. The nebula is about 1.9 light years across and individual lobes within it are expanding from the center with speeds of up to one quarter of a million miles per hour (100 kilometers per second).
N66 is located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a satellite galaxy of the MilkyWay, 169,000 light years away.
Camera: Faint Object Camera
Technical Information: Image taken in
the light of doubly ionized oxygen at 501 nm and sharpened by computer
image reconstruction.
Credit: J. C. Blades (STScl), M. J. Barlow
(University College, London), NASA, and ESA
