Hubble
Space Telescope shows an optical image of NGC 5315, a planetary nebula located about
7,000 light years from Earth in the constellation of Circinus.
Planetary
nebulas are gaseous clouds created in the last stages of the lifetime of a star
like the sun. (Though the term "planetary nebula" is applied to this
class of objects, it is a misnomer, like "English horn," as these
objects have nothing to do with planets. But the objects looked like planets
when viewed through early small optical telescopes.)
NGC 5315
became an X-ray source when powerful winds from a particularly young star at
the center collided with the ejected material. This action rendered it visible
to the Chandra X-ray telescope, which does not always see planetary nebulas in
X-ray light.
Interestingly,
astronomers discovered NGC 5315 inadvertently, while searching for the object
Hen 2-99 in the same region of space. Although Hen 2-99 was too faint to be
detected, the researchers noticed planetary nebula NGC 5315 a large distance
away from the aimpoint of the Chandra telescope, where the image is not as sharp.
-- Harvard-Smithsonian Center for
Astrophysics and SPACE.com Staff
Credit: NASA/ESA/STScI/AURA/The Hubble Heritage Team
