up

IRAS 20068+4051 (2013)

I think this is almost the last preplanetary nebula in the Hubble archive. I’m not sure if I should be sad that there aren’t that many or happy that this many had their pictures taken. They are elusive and marvelous.  I am definitely happy to live in a time when the HST exists. What kind of images will future telescopes look at? Will these amazing glimpses into our galaxy look feeble and inferior to some yet unborn stargazer? I love Hubble, but I do hope that its successors achieve this.

Red: HST_10536_06_ACS_HRC_F814W_sci
Green: Pseudo
Blue: HST_10536_06_ACS_HRC_F606W_sci

North is NOT up. It’s 35° counter-clockwise from up.

Copyright information:
Hubble data is public domain, but I put a lot of work into combining it into beautiful color images. The minimal credit line should read: NASA / ESA / J. Schmidt

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.