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FOR RELEASE: February 10, 2003

PHOTO NO.: STScI-PRC03-06

CLOSE-UP OF M27, THE DUMBBELL NEBULA

An aging star's last hurrah is creating a flurry of glowing knots of 
gas that appear to be streaking through space in this close-up image 
of the Dumbbell Nebula, taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The 
Dumbbell, a nearby planetary nebula residing more than 1,200 
light-years away, is the result of an old star that has shed its outer 
layers in a unique display of color.

This image, created by the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI), was taken by 
Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in November 2001, by Bob O'Dell 
(Vanderbilt University) and collaborators.  The filters used to create 
this color image show oxygen in blue, hydrogen in green and a 
combination of sulfur and nitrogen emission in red.

Image Credit: NASA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: C.R. O'Dell (Vanderbilt University)

To see and read more, please click on
http://hubblesite.org/news/2003/06 and
http://heritage.stsci.edu/2003/06.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is operated by the
Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. (AURA),
for NASA, under contract with the Goddard Space Flight Center,
Greenbelt, MD. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of 
international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency 
(ESA).

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