ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

Like NGC 6826, NGC 7009 has a bright central star at the center of a dark cavity bounded by a football-shaped rim of dense, blue and red gas. The cavity and its rim are trapped inside smoothly-distributed greenish material in the shape of a barrel and comprised of the star's former outer layers. At larger distances, and lying along the long axis of the nebula, a pair of red "ansae", or "handles" appears. Each ansa is joined to the tips of the cavity by a long greenish jet of material. The handles are clouds of low-density gas. NGC 7009 is 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Aquarius. The Hubble telescope observation was taken April 28, 1996 by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Object Name: NGC 7009

Image Type: Astronomical

Credits: Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Jason Alexander (University of Washington), Arsen Hajian (U.S. Naval Observatory), Yervant Terzian (Cornell University), Mario Perinotto (University of Florence, Italy), Patrizio Patriarchi (Arcetri Observatory, Italy), NASA

NEWS RELEASE IMAGES

The above image is part of a montage:

Montage Image: Hubble's Planetary Nebula Gallery Image Type: Astronomical PRC1997-38b Round Planetary Nebula IC 3568 Image Type: Astronomical Eye-Shaped Planetary Nebula NGC 6826 Image Type: Astronomical Planetary Nebula NGC 3918 Image Type: Astronomical Two-Lobed Planetary Nebula Hubble 5 Image Type: Astronomical Spiral-Structured Planetary Nebula NGC 5307 Image Type: Astronomical

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