ESA - Space Science - The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392)

Space Science

About Space Science ESA's 'Cosmic Vision'Science & Technology in-depth

Multimedia

Science images Science videos Animations Downloads Sounds from space RSS feeds

Media centre

Press Releases Press kits ESA Television

Resources

Reference section Glossary FAQs

Science missions

Services

Help Legal disclaimer Comments Subscribe

Postcard Images

The Eskimo Nebula (NGC 2392)

23 July 2003

Back to postcard

Download:

HI-RES JPEG (Size: 330 kb)

HI RES TIFF (Size: 6595 kb)

The breathtakingly beautiful Eskimo Nebula is an intricate structure of shells and streamers of gas around a dying Sun-like star 5000 light-years away. The disc of material is embellished with a ring of comet-shaped objects, their tails streaming away from the central, dying star. The planetary nebula began to form about 10 000 years ago, when the dying star started to expel an intense 'wind' of high-speed material out into space.

Credits: NASA, ESA, Andrew Fruchter (STScI), and the ERO team (STScI + ST-ECF)

More about...

Hubble factsheet

Where is Hubble now?

Track Hubble

A perfect storm of turbulent gases The Big Bang Hubble: The man who discovered the Cosmos Hubble watches light echo from mysterious erupting star Why are things in space the shape that they are?