Starship Asterisk*

Planetary Nebula NGC 2438

Explanation: NGC 2438 is a planetary nebula, the gaseous shroud cast off by a dying sunlike star billions of years old whose central reservoir of hydrogen fuel has been exhausted. About 3,000 light-years distant it lies within the boundaries of the nautical constellation Puppis. Remarkably, NGC 2438 also seems to lie on the outskirts of bright, relatively young open star cluster M46. But this planetary nebula's central star is not only much older than the stars of M46, it moves through space at a different speed than the cluster stars. Distance estimates also place NGC 2438 closer than M46 and so the nebula appears in the foreground, only by chance along the line-of-sight to the young star cluster. This deep image of NGC 2438 highlights a previously unseen halo of glowing atomic gas over 4.5 light-years across, extending beyond the nebula's brighter inner ring. Similar haloes have been found in deep images of other planetary nebulae, produced during the earlier active phases of their aging central stars.

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Congratulations Daniel, it's a realy beautiful image.
Greetings
César

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990305.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090326.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060910.html

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap101202.html

After viewing the APOD history of NGC 2438 listed above, this photo is certainly a giant leap forward in capturing the nebula in such fine detail.

Congratulations to Mr. Lopez!!

I notice ther is a sceond planetary nebula in this picture.

You note an outer ring of glowing atomic mass over 4.5 light years in diameter. Isn't the nearest star to our sun approximately 5 light years away? And what is speculated to happen when this ring of energy reaches an adjacent star such as our sun and the planetary system surrounding it?

The nebula is "About 3,000 light-years distant " according to the explanation.

How can the dying central star be so energetic as to ionize its own cast off gas now 4.5 light years away?

Craig Willford wrote:
How can the dying central star be so energetic as to ionize its own cast off gas now 4.5 light years away?

Vitameatavegamin

How can the central star be not much older than the stars of M46? I thought planetary Nebula came of Stars with similar mass and age of the Sun
So the star must be at least 4.5 Billion years old to be a planetary Nebula ?the Young stars of M46 would not be even one tenth of that age.
Am I correct in assuming this ?

ron wrote:
How can the central star be not much older than the stars of M46? I thought planetary Nebula came of Stars with similar mass and age of the Sun
So the star must be at least 4.5 Billion years old to be a planetary Nebula ?the Young stars of M46 would not be even one tenth of that age.
Am I correct in assuming this ?

I misread this the first time myself.

You missed reading the word ONLY because of is similarity to the word NOT:

• But this planetary nebula's central star is not ONLY much older than the stars of M46,
  it moves through space at a different speed than the cluster stars.