The Crescent Nebula
The Hubble telescope has snapped a view of a stellar demolition zone in our Milky Way Galaxy: a massive star, nearing the end of its life, tearing apart the shell of surrounding material it blew off 250, 000 years ago with its strong stellar wind. The shell of material, dubbed the Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888), surrounds the 'hefty, ' aging star WR 136, an extremely rare and short-lived class of super-hot star called a Wolf-Rayet.
Credit:About the Image
About the Object
| Name: | Crescent Nebula, IRAS 20102+3812, NGC 6888 |
| Type: | Milky Way : Star : Type : Wolf-Rayet Milky Way : Nebula : Appearance : Emission |
| Distance: | 4500 light years |
| Category: | Nebulae Stars |
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
|---|---|---|
| Optical OIII | 502 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |
| Optical H-alpha | 656 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |
| Optical SII | 673 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
WFPC2 |
Notes: The coloured image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The black and white image is from a ground-based telescope.