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This planetary nebula is composed of two, or three, separate
layers, or shells. The brightest, innermost shell is
strongly oblong, and along with the nebula's central dying
star have encouraged some to call this the Eye, or the CBS
Eye. The next layer has a more circular shape, and its
angular size of 40x35 arc seconds--close to the angular size
of Jupiter in our skies--has sometimes earned it the name
"Jupiter's Ghost." A third, much fainter shell, or
halo, around this nebula (not visible in this picture)
extends to about 20.8 arc minutes in diameter--two thirds
the diameter of the Moon!
NGC 3242 is
somewhere between 1400 and 2500 light years away.
This photo was
taken on February 28th, 2008. |
