Hubble's Planetary Nebula Gallery. A View of NGC 7009
Depicts: NGC 7009, The Saturn Nebula, IRAS 21014-1133
Copyright: Bruce Balick (University of Washington), Jason Alexander (University of Washington), Arsen Hajian (U.S. Naval Observatory), Yervant Terzian (Cornell University), Mario Perinotto (University of Florence, Italy), Patrizio Patriarchi (Arcetri Observatory, Italy), NASA
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NGC 7009 has a bright
central star at the center of a dark cavity bounded by a
football-shaped rim of dense, blue and red gas. The cavity
and its rim are trapped inside smoothly-distributed greenish
material in the shape of a barrel and comprised of the star's
former outer layers. At larger distances, and lying along
the long axis of the nebula, a pair of red "ansae", or
"handles" appears. Each ansa is joined to the tips of the
cavity by a long greenish jet of material. The handles are
clouds of low-density gas. NGC 7009 is 1,400 light-years
away in the constellation Aquarius. The Hubble telescope
observation was taken April 28, 1996 by the Wide Field
and Planetary Camera 2.
Last Update: 1 September 2019
