NGC 2818 (2013)

Pretty and detailed planetary nebula NGC 2818. I can’t find the central star. I think it might be behind that one bright dust pillar which is crossing the center. That dust is probably extending out from the core and being blown straight toward our line of sight. Just like any nebula, it’s difficult to say anything about the three dimensional structure of the nebula. There’s no way to measure the distances of individual parts of the clouds so we have to rely on visual clues to make a best guess.

For more information:
Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_2818
An APOD: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090122.html

Red: hst_11956_06_wfpc2_f673n_wf_sci + hst_11956_06_wfpc2_f658n_wf_sci
Green: hst_11956_06_wfpc2_f656n_wf_sci
Blue: hst_11956_06_wfpc2_f502n_wf_sci

North is NOT up. It’s 15° 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

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