Planetary Nebulae (5 objects)
Go gently into that good night. When a sun-like star's nuclear fuel is exhausted, the core starts to shrink. The gravitational energy thus released heats both the core and the atmosphere even faster than the previously sedate nuclear furnace. The atmosphere is expelled, leaving a naked very hot tiny core (white dwarf). The intense UV from the hot core causes the atmosphere to glow in H-alpha (especially in an outer shell) and O-III (especially near in). Binary companions, strong magnetic fields, and equatorial dust lanes conspire to produce beautiful and convoluted shapes, seen very differently according to our viewing angle.
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Bug nebula NGC 6302 in Scorpius, Hubble palette, processed to show faint features not normally seen in amateur shots.
Red: SII 120 min
Green H-alpha 440 min
Blue OIII 390 min
Total exposure 15.8 hours
Field 9 min arc across
Stars artificially whitened.
Aspen CG16M on 20" PlaneWave.
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