Water-building molecule in Ring Nebula
Date: 17 June 2014
Satellite: Herschel and Hubble Space Telescope
Depicts: Ring Nebula
Copyright: See credit information below
The Ring Nebula at optical wavelengths as seen by the Hubble Space Telescope, with Herschel data acquired with SPIRE and PACS over a wavelength range of 51–672 micrometres for the region identified. The spectra have been cropped and the scales stretched in order to show the OH+ emission, a molecular ion important for the formation of water. ESA's Herschel space observatory is the first to detect this molecule in planetary nebulas – the product of dying Sun-like stars.
Credits: Hubble image: NASA/ESA/C. Robert O'Dell (Vanderbilt University); Herschel data: ESA/Herschel/PACS & SPIRE/ HerPlaNS survey/I. Aleman et al.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
