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.

                              2020 February 16

                  NGC 2392: Double-Shelled Planetary Nebula
    Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, Chandra; Processing & License: Judy
                                   Schmidt

   Explanation: To some, this huge nebula resembles a person's head
   surrounded by a parka hood. In 1787, astronomer William Herschel
   discovered this unusual planetary nebula: NGC 2392. More recently, the
   Hubble Space Telescope imaged the nebula in visible light, while the
   nebula was also imaged in X-rays by the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The
   featured combined visible-X ray image, shows X-rays emitted by central
   hot gas in pink. The nebula displays gas clouds so complex they are not
   fully understood. NGC 2392 is a double-shelled planetary nebula, with
   the more distant gas having composed the outer layers of a Sun-like
   star only 10,000 years ago. The outer shell contains unusual light-year
   long orange filaments. The inner filaments visible are being ejected by
   strong wind of particles from the central star. The NGC 2392 Nebula
   spans about 1/3 of a light year and lies in our Milky Way Galaxy, about
   3,000 light years distant, toward the constellation of the Twins
   (Gemini).

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