NASA has released a spectacular photo taken by the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope of planetary nebula ESO 455-10.
This Hubble image shows ESO 455-10, a planetary nebula in the constellation Scorpius. The color image is composed of near-infrared and optical observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Four filters were used to sample different wavelengths. The color is the result of assigning different colors to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Stanghellini.
Planetary nebulae are a type of emission nebula that consists of an expanding shell of gas that is ejected from stars late in life.
These objects are usually no larger than a light-year in diameter, and form at the end of the life of a star with intermediate mass, between 1 and 8 times that of the sun.
They have a relatively round, compact appearance rather than the chaotic spherical shapes of other nebulae – hence their name, which was given because of their resemblance to planetary disks when viewed with the instruments of the late 1700s, when the first planetary nebulae have been discovered.
Planetary nebulae are thought to be crucial for galactic enrichment because they disperse their elements, especially the heavier metal elements produced in a star, into the interstellar medium that will eventually form the next generation of stars.
There are about 20,000 planetary nebulae in our Milky Way galaxy. Most of them are concentrated to the level of the Milky Way’s disk, but some also know that they exist in the halo and the hill.
ESO 455-10, also known as IRAS 17277-3058, is such a planetary nebula, located in the constellation Scorpius.
“The ESO 455-10 wafer shells, formerly held tightly together as layers of its central star, not only give this planetary nebula its unique appearance, but also provide information about the nebula,” said Hubble astronomers.
“Seen in a field of stars, the clear asymmetric arc of material across the north side of the nebula is a clear sign of interactions between ESO 455-10 and the interstellar medium.”
“The interstellar medium is the material – consisting of matter and radiation – between galaxies and galaxies,” they explained.
“The star at the center of ESO 455-10 shows Hubble the interaction with the gas and dust of the nebula, the surrounding interstellar medium and the light of the star itself.”