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The Colorful Demise of a Sun-like Star

by: *Credit:* NASA [ http://www.nasa.gov/ ], ESA [ http://www.spacetelescope.org/ ], and K. Noll (STScI [ http://www.stsci.edu/ ]) *Acknowledgment:* The Hubble Heritage [ http://heritage.stsci.edu/ ] Team (STScI [ http://www.stsci.edu/ ]/AURA [ http://www.aura-astronomy.org/ ])

Publication date: 2/13/2007

Topics: NGC 2440, What -- Hubble Space Telescope (HST), What -- Sun, What -- Uranus, What -- Neptune, What -- Earth, What -- Constellation, What -- Puppis, What -- Wide Field Planetary Camera 2, What -- Camera 2, Where -- Milky Way Galaxy, Where -- Hamilton

*Description*: This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the colorful "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the material glow. The burned-out star, called a white dwarf, is the white dot in the center. Our Sun will eventually burn out and shroud itself with stellar debris, but not for another 5 billion years. Our Milky Way Galaxy is littered with these stellar relics, called planetary nebulae. The objects have nothing to do with planets. Eighteenth- and nineteenth-century astronomers named them planetary nebulae because through small telescopes they resembled the disks of the distant planets Uranus and Neptune. The planetary nebula in this image is called NGC 2440. The white dwarf at the center of NGC 2440 is one of the hottest known, with a surface temperature of nearly 400,000 degrees Fahrenheit (200,000 degrees Celsius). The nebula's chaotic structure suggests that the star shed its mass episodically. During each outburst, the star expelled material in a different direction. This can be seen in the two bow tie-shaped lobes. The nebula also is rich in clouds of dust, some of which form long, dark streaks pointing away from the star. NGC 2440 lies about 4,000 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Puppis. The image was taken Feb. 6, 2007 with Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The colors correspond to material expelled by the star. Blue corresponds to helium; blue-green to oxygen; and red to nitrogen and hydrogen. For more information, contact: Ray Villard, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. (phone) 410-338-4514, (e-mail) villard@stsci.edu or Keith Noll, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md. (phone) 410-338-1828, (e-mail) noll@stsci.edu Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: NGC 2440 Object Description: Planetary Nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy Position (J2000): R.A. 07h 41m 55.3s Dec. -18° 12' 31" Constellation: Puppis Distance: Approximately 3,600 light-years (1,100 parsecs) Dimensions: This image is roughy 1.2 arcminutes (1.3 light-years or 0.4 parsecs) wide. About the Data Data Description: The Hubble image was created from HST data from proposal 11090: K. Noll, H. Bond, C. Christian, L. Frattare, F. Hamilton, Z. Levay, M. Mutchler, and W. Januszewski (Hubble Heritage Team/STScI). Instrument: WFPC2 Exposure Date(s): February 6, 2007 Filters: Narrow: F469N (He II), F502N ([O III]), F656N (H-alpha), F658N ([N II]) Broad: F439W ("B"), F555W ("V"), F675W ("R") About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Noll (STScI) Release Date: February 13, 2007 Color: This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the WFPC2 instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. Three filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. Four filters were used to sample narrow wavelength emission. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: F439W ("B"), F469N (He II), F502N ([O III]) blue F555W ("V"), F656N (H-alpha) green F658N ([N II]), F675W ("R") red Orientation/Scale: [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2007/09/images/a/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] *News Release Number:*: STScI-2007-09a