News Release Archive:

News Release 118 of 828

January 15, 2009 09:00 AM (EST)

News Release Number: STScI-2009-05

Hubble Snaps a Splendid Planetary Nebula

Technical facts about this news release:

About the Object

Object Name:	NGC 2818
Object Description:	Planetary Nebula
Position (J2000):	R.A. 09h 16m 06s.13 Dec. -36° 37' 36".88
Constellation:	Pyxis
Distance:	10,400 light-years (3.2 kiloparsecs)
Dimensions:	This image is roughly 2 arcminutes (6.5 light-years or 2 parsecs) wide.

About the Data

Science Team:	This image was created from HST data from proposals 11956: K. Noll, Z. Levay, M. Mutchler, L. Frattare, C. Christian, F. Hamilton, and H. Bond (STScI/AURA)
Instrument:	WFPC2
Exposure Date(s):	November 27/28, 2008
Exposure Time:	2.1 hours
Filters:	F502N ([O III]), F656N (H-alpha), and F658N ([N II])

About the Image

Release Credit:

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

Release Date:

January 15, 2009

Color:

The image is a composite of separate exposures made by the WFPC2 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Three filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are:

F658N ([N II])	red
F656N (H-alpha)	green
F502N ([O III])	blue

Orientation: