NGC
5307
Planetary nebula
RA 13h 51m 3.3s Dec. -51° 12' 21.0"
Centaurus
est. 7200 - 8500 light years
11.5
10 x 15 arcsec (0.6 light years)
Howard Bond (STScI), Robin Ciardullo (Penn State University) & NASA
December 17, 1997
Other images: N9738 N0733 N1934
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ABOUT THIS IMAGE:
NGC 5307 lies in the southern constellation Centaurus but is about 10,000 light-years away and has a diameter of approximately 0.6 light-year. It is an example of a planetary nebula with a pinwheel or spiral structure which may have been caused by the dying star wobbling as it expelled jets of gas in different directions. Each blob of gas ejected from the central star has a counterpart on the opposite side of the star