Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy (2002)

Chapter: The Hourglass Nebula

Previous Chapter: The Ring Nebula
Suggested Citation: "The Hourglass Nebula." Noreen Grice. 2002. Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. doi: 10.17226/10307.

Figure 7.
THE HOURGLASS NEBULA

The Hourglass Nebula is a planetary nebula located about 8,000 light years away, meaning that its light takes 8,000 years to reach Earth. A dying star in the center of the nebula is ejecting gaseous material into space. The first astronomers to view this collection of star debris through a telescope thought it resembled the shape of an hourglass, so they gave it that name.

This January 1996 picture, taken by R. Sahai and J. Trauger of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, reveals the nebula’s detailed wispy structure and a pair of intersecting elliptical rings at the center.

Suggested Citation: "The Hourglass Nebula." Noreen Grice. 2002. Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. doi: 10.17226/10307.

In this photograph, different colors are used to represent layers of gases: nitrogen (red), hydrogen (green), and oxygen (blue). The dying star is seen in the center. The curved hourglass-shaped gaseous structure is raised as curved solid lines and incomplete lines.

Suggested Citation: "The Hourglass Nebula." Noreen Grice. 2002. Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. doi: 10.17226/10307.
Suggested Citation: "The Hourglass Nebula." Noreen Grice. 2002. Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of Astronomy. Washington, DC: Joseph Henry Press. doi: 10.17226/10307.
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Next Chapter: NGC 2392--The Eskimo Nebula
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