NGC 3242, the Ghost of Jupiter Nebula Imaged by XMM-Newton
Minimum credit line: Image courtesy of You-Hua Chu and Robert A. Gruendl (University of Illinois), Martin A. Guerrero and Nieves Ruiz (IAA-CSIC) and ESA. (for details, see Conditions of Use).
Credit: ESA/XMM-Newton, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
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| About this Image |
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XMM-Newton and Hubble Space Telescope color composite images of NGC 3242, the Ghost of Jupiter Nebula, a Southern planetary nebula located some 3,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Hydra. The Ghost of Jupiter Nebula is a complex shell of ionized gas that formed the outer layers of a Sun-like star a few thousand years ago. The progenitor star has become a hot white dwarf star whose fast stellar wind snowplows the nebular material to create the multiple shell morphology of this nebula. The dynamic interaction between this fast stellar wind and the nebular material generates X-ray-emitting plasma that can be detected with XMM-Newton. This image shows the location of the hot, X-ray-emitting gas (blue in the image) relative to the cool, ionized nebular shell seen in optical wavelengths ([O III] in green and [N II] in red). The XMM-Newton image was obtained by a team led by Y.-H. Chu (University of Illinois, USA) and the Hubble Space Telescope images were taken by A. Hajian (U.S. Naval Observatory) and B. Balick (University of Washington).
Investigator(s): You-Hua Chu and Robert A. Gruendl (University of Illinois), Martin A. Guerrero and Nieves Ruiz (IAA-CSIC)
| For More Information |
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- Read the Press Release
- Read the Journal article
- Detailed description of this image
- Query XSA archive for XMM-Newton data in the field of NGC 3242
- Astronomical database entries for NGC 3242;
- Query NED for more images about NGC 3242
- Query SIMBAD for more NGC 3242 data
- For unfamiliar terms, visit the XMM-Newton Astronomical Glossary
- 901 x 866 Default Resolution
| Instrument | EPIC | ||
| Observing Mode | Extended Full Frame | ||
| Filter | Medium | ||
| Date of Observation | 2003-12-04 | ||
| Image size | 40.00 x 40.00 arcsec | ||
| Detailed Caption | The planetary nebula NGC 3242, the Ghost of Jupiter Nebula, was observed by EPIC/MOS and EPIC/pn on board XMM-Newton on December 4, 2003 for a total exposure time of 19.3 ks. These observations have revealed for the first time faint diffuse X-ray emission from 2x106 K hot gas confined in the central cavity of NGC 3242. The hot gas originates from the shocked fast stellar wind, as expected in the interacting-winds model of planetary nebula formation. The hot gas compresses the nebular shell and produce a sharp inner rim, which is commonly seen on X-ray-emitting planetary nebulae, such as the Cat's Eye Nebula and the Eskimo Nebula. It is thus puzzling that NGC 3242's inner shell does not show a sharp rim. | ||
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