Stingray Nebula in 1996

This image shows the planetary nebula Hen 3-1357, nicknamed the Stingray nebula, captured by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope in March 1996. The image captures the final stages of the central star’s life, where a ballooning shroud of gas is cast off by the dying star. This image captured the Stingray nebula in its infancy and astronomers called it the youngest known planetary nebula. In this image, the colors shown represent light emitted by nitrogen (red), oxygen (green), and hydrogen (blue).

About the colours

These images are a composite of separate exposures acquired by the WFPC2 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Several filters were used to sample narrow wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic (grayscale) image associated with an individual filter. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F502N Green: F656N Red: F658N

About the data

The HST observations include those from programs 6039 (M. Bobrowsky)