Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2019 July 11

                         The Ghost of Jupiter's Halo
   Image Credit & Copyright: CHART32 Team, Processing - Johannes Schedler
                               / Volker Wendel

   Explanation: Close-up images of NGC 3242 show the cast off shroud of a
   dying, sun-like star fancifully known as The Ghost of Jupiter nebula.
   But this deep and wide telescopic view also finds the seldom seen outer
   halo of the beautiful planetary nebula at the upper left, toward Milky
   Way stars and background galaxies in the serpentine constellation
   Hydra. Intense and otherwise invisible ultraviolet radiation from the
   nebula's central white dwarf star powers its illusive glow in visible
   light. In fact, planets of NGC 3242's evolved white dwarf star may have
   contributed to the nebula's symmetric features and shape. Activity
   beginning in the star's red giant phase, long before it produced a
   planetary nebula, is likely the cause of the fainter more extensive
   halo. About a light-year across NGC 3242 is some 4,500 light-years
   away. The tenuous clouds of glowing material at the right could well be
   interstellar gas, by chance close enough to the NGC 3242's white dwarf
   to be energized by its ultraviolet radiation.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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