Here’s a new WITU Challenge! Take a look at this image and see if you can determine where in the universe this image is from; give yourself extra points if you can name the spacecraft/telescope responsible for the image. We’ll provide the image today, but won’t reveal the answer until tomorrow. This gives you a chance to mull over the image and provide your answer/guess in the comment section. Please, no links or extensive explanations of what you think this is — give everyone the chance to guess.
Remember, we’ll take suggestions for future WITU’s — just send Nancy an email
UPDATE: The answer has now been posted below.
This eye-shaped object is the Planetary Nebula NGC 6826, and the image was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope on Jan. 27, 1996 with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. NGC 6826 is 2,200 light- years away in the constellation Cygnus, and the hot remnant star in the center of the green oval is one of the brightest stars in any planetary nebula. See more about this image on the HubbleSite.
Nebula NGC 6826
Poster above is correct, taken by Hubble in January 1996 but not released until December 1997, it’s also in the Caldwell index as C15. It’s known as a “blinking” nebulae because of its propensity to “pop” in and out of sight when looking at it peripherally.
A.K.A. – blinking planetary
A planetary nebula obviously, looks allot like cat’s eye but I’m not entirely sure…
Looks like Caldwell 15 in Cygnus
Looks like IRAS 19434+5024 in Cygnus. And, um, looks like a HST image?
It looks like the Eye of Sauron to me.
Google Images makes this guessing game too easy. [link deleted]
Editor’s note: Tsk, tsk, read the rules — “Please, no links…”
NGC 6826, the “Dragon’s Eye” nebula in Cygnus. Image taken in January 1996 with HST’s WFPC2.