Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Orion (Ori)  ·  Contains:  PK197-03.1
Abell 14, Gary Imm
Abell 14, Gary Imm

Abell 14

Abell 14, Gary Imm
Abell 14, Gary Imm

Abell 14

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Description

This planetary nebula is located 11000 light years away in the constellation of Orion at a declination of +12 degrees.  It is a magnitude 15.2 PN which spans 40 arc-seconds in our apparent view.  This corresponds to a span of 2 light years.  The PN is believed to well evolved, at an age of 20,000 years.

Although OIII signal is present, the HII signal is dominant here.  An excellent 2015 paper,  “Deciphering the bipolar planetary nebula Abell 14 with 3D ionization”, concluded that this is a bipolar nebula and we are seeing the torus (thick ring) section from a view which is just off of side-on.  This PN did not make sense to me until I saw it as a ring from that perspective, like looking at a short cylinder from the side.

The bright blue giant star at the center of the PN is obvious.  The above paper concluded that such a star is not hot enough to ionize the surrounding gas.  Therefore, it is likely that a hotter unseen companion star is the progenitor.

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