NGC 3242 "Ghost of Jupiter" (2013)

Another planetary nebula. Very similar to NGC 6826 but it’s interesting to compare the subtle differences. Why are they so similar? Why are some parts not similar? Are they aligned for some reason?

Processing notes: Most of the nebula was on three filters but the edges were cut off around the outer part of the fainter spheroid. Something like this but I used a different set for the WFPC2-PC squares. There’s more than one way to process a nebula…

Red: hst_08773_13_wfpc2_f658n_pc_sci
Green: hst_08773_13_wfpc2_f555w_pc_sci
Blue: hst_08773_13_wfpc2_f502n_pc_sci

Extra bits around the edge that were missing from the PC: hst_10822_02_wfpc2_f547m_wf_sci

North is 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

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