Hubble Photographs a Planetary Nebula to Commemorate Decommissioning of Super Camera

DC Agle 818-393-9011
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
agle@jpl.nasa.gov

JD Harrington/Dwayne Brown
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-5241/1726
j.d.harrington@nasa.gov /dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov

Cheryl Gundy 410-338-4707
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Md.
gundy@stsci.edu

News release: 2009-081 May 10, 2009

Hubble Photographs a Planetary Nebula to Commemorate Decommissioning of Super Camera

The Hubble community bids farewell to the soon-to-be decommissioned Wide Field and Planetary
Camera 2 onboard NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. In tribute to Hubble's longest-running optical
camera, which was developed and built by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a
planetary nebula has been imaged as the camera's final "pretty picture."

This planetary nebula is known as Kohoutek 4-55 (or K 4-55). It is one of a series of planetary nebulae
that were named after their discoverer, Czech astronomer Lubos Kohoutek. A planetary nebula
contains the outer layers of a red giant star that were expelled into interstellar space when the star
was in the late stages of its life. Ultraviolet radiation emitted from the remaining hot core of the star
ionizes the ejected gas shells, causing them to glow.

In the specific case of K 4-55, a bright inner ring is surrounded by a bipolar structure. The entire
system is then surrounded by a faint red halo, seen in the emission by nitrogen gas. This multi-shell
structure is fairly uncommon in planetary nebulae.

This Hubble image was taken by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on May 4, 2009. The colors
represent the makeup of the various emission clouds in the nebula: red represents nitrogen, green
represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen. K 4-55 is nearly 4,600 light-years away in the
constellation Cygnus.

The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 instrument, which was installed in 1993 to replace the original
Wide Field/Planetary Camera, will be removed to make room for Wide Field Camera 3 during the
upcoming Hubble Servicing Mission.

During the camera's amazing, nearly 16-year run, the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 provided
outstanding science and spectacular images of the cosmos. Some of its best-remembered images are
of the Eagle Nebula pillars, Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9's impacts on Jupiter's atmosphere, and the
1995 Hubble Deep Field -- the longest and deepest Hubble optical image of its time.

The scientific and inspirational legacy of the camera will be felt by astronomers and the public alike, for
as long as the story of the Hubble Space Telescope is told.

For images and more information about planetary nebula K 4-55, visit:
http://hubblesite.org/news/2009/21 . For more information about the Wide Field and Planetary
Camera 2, visit: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/wfpc2/

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the
European Space Agency and is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The Space Telescope Science Institute conducts Hubble science operations. The institute is operated
for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., Washington, D.C.

The Space Telescope Science Institute is an International Year of Astronomy 2009 program partner.
JPL is managed for NASA by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.

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