Medusa nebula, Abell 21

Medusa nebula, Abell 21

Downloadable versions (see NOAO Conditions of Use):
250 x 250 27 KB color JPG(on this page)
1000 x 997 493 KB color JPG
2000 x 1993 1.25 MB color JPG
4000 x 3986 6.37 MB color JPG
8333 x 8304 52.98 MB color JPG
8333 x 8304 198.01 MB color TIFF

The Medusa nebula, known scientifically as Abell 21, is an old planetary nebula some 1,500 light-years away in the constellation Gemini. It is estimated to be over 4 light-years across. This image was taken on Oct 24th, 2008 at the Mayall telescope with the mosaic camera, with [OIII] (assigned a blue color) and H-alpha (orange) filters

This image was released during the 100 Hours of Astronomy webcast, "Around the World in 80 Telescopes" held from April 3-4, 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy 2009. View the recorded event from KPNO. See also this image of NGC 6520 from CTIO, which was also released during the webcast.

Minimum credit line: H. Schweiker/NOAO/AURA/NSF and T. A. Rector/University of Alaska Anchorage and NOAO/AURA/NSF (for details see Conditions of Use)

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