Astrophoto: A Well-Rounded Glow

[n2doc]

In theory, planetary nebulae should be simple and spherical, like the soap bubbles you made as a child. But only a rare few actually are! Here’s an example of one of the almost perfectly round planetary nebulae.

“Abell 39 is the quintessential bubble nebula with spherical form,” writes Adam Block, who is an avid astrophotographer, as well as the Public Observing Programs Coordinator at the Mount Lemmon Sky Center in Tucson, Arizona.

“As this is a ‘true color”‘(broadband) image, it is difficult to show the limb brightening and the variations in the transparent shell like narrowband images do. I am glad to finally have this one in the collection of recent work.”
See more information about this image at the Mount Lemmon Sky Center’s website


http://www.universetoday.com/97467/astrophoto-a-well-rounded-glow/

[gopiscrap]

1. Cool

[opiate69]

2. I always wonder about scale in these kind of pictures...

Any idea how big that nebula is in comoarison to our orbit or solar system?

[Ptah]

3. Wikipedia says radius of about 2.5 light-years

It is almost perfectly spherical and also one of the largest known spheres with a radius of about 2.5 light-years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abell_39

[opiate69]

4. Wow... So over twice the radius of our Oort cloud.

Hard to imagine the stars gravity extends out that far. Absolutely fascinating.