This object, also known as PK164+31.1, is a large planetary nebula located 1600 light years away in the constellation of Lynx at a declination of +53 degrees. This PN was discovered in 1939 by Rebecca Jones and Richard M. Emberson.
The diameter is 4 light years across. Like all planetary nebulae, it is comprised of the outer gas layers blown off of a dying star. In this image, the red gas is hydrogen and the cyan gas is oxygen. In the very center of the nebula is the tiny remaining magnitude 17 white dwarf of a star, only about the size of the earth. It is the typical unique shade of blue for a PN progenitor star. This white dwarf emits vast amounts of energy which ionizes the gas cloud, causing it to glow.
I cannot find a discussion of the morphology of this PN, which is amazing to me given its popularity. As I show on my
Planetary Nebulae Morphology II poster, I believe that this PN is an elliptical PN, categorized as having been formed by a binary progenitor star system where both members of the binary system share the same ejected gas envelope of the late life AGB star.
The shape of this PN is unique and unlike the
other 250 PN that I have imaged. The closest analogies are
Abell 29, and
Abell 80 , both much further away from us and showing less detail than this PN.
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