HST takes images of the "Bird's Nest Nebula"
This is an image made from very recent Hubble Space Telescope data.
A team of astronomers at NASA Ames Research Center (California), Peking University,
and University College London were inspired by the Beijing Olympics
to create this colorful picture in the Chinese national colors red and yellow.
Also the shape looks like the letter 'O' obviously for 'Olympics'.
In the Olympic spirit, they call this the "Bird's Nest Nebula"
after the splendid National Olympic Stadium.
The astronomical object is a planetary nebula with the less
colorful catalog-type name M1-42.
It is common for astronomers to find a resemblance to various
forms for many planetary nebulae. This has given rise to such names that include
the Cat's Eye Nebula, the Turtle Nebula, the Helix Nebula, and the
Dumbbell Nebula.
Prof. Xiaowei Liu (Peking University), one of the team members,
points out that with
further imagination, the central cavity even has the shape of a bird.
Scientifically, he and his colleagues have been particularly interested
in researching this object. These new Hubble images will help decipher
some crucial unanswered questions.
The Birds Nest Nebula is located in the constellation Sagittarius
at a distance of nearly 25000 light years.
Other members of the team are Robert Rubin (NASA/Ames) who
is visiting Peking University to work with Liu and to see
the Olympics, Michael Barlow and Yiannis Tsamis (University
College London).
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