M37 / IPHASX J055226.2+323724
Discovery of The Oldest Visible Planetary Nebula, hosted by a 500 million year old Galaxy Cluster
This image is believed to be the first deep colour image of the nebula.
It was captured jointly with Sven Eklund using our 3 robotic telescopes located in Southern Spain.
Image processing by Marcel Drechsler.
An international team of astronomers led by members of the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) and Department of Physics at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), have discovered a rare celestial jewel–a so-called Planetary Nebula (PN) inside a 500 million-year-old Galactic Open Cluster (OC) called M37 (also known as NGC2099). This is a very rare finding of high astrophysical value. Their findings have just been published in the prestigious open-access paper Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac88c1
The planetary nebula, known as IPHASX J055226.2+323724, is only the 3rd example of an association between a planetary nebula and open cluster out of the ~4,000 planetary nebulae known in our Galaxy. It also appears to be the oldest planetary nebula ever found. The small team led by Professor Quentin Parker, Director of the HKU LSR, have determined some interesting properties for their discovery: the authors found the PN has a “kinematic age” of 70,000 years. This estimate is based on how fast the nebula is expanding, as determined from the PN emission lines, and assuming this speed has remained effectively the same since the beginning, and is the time elapsed since the nebular shell was first ejected by the host, a dying star. This compares to typical PN ages of 5,000-25,000 years. It is truly a grand old dame in planetary nebula terms but of course a mere “blink of the eye” in terms of the life of the original star itself that runs to hundreds of millions of years.
arxiv.org/abs/2210.07554
This image is believed to be the first deep colour image of the nebula.
It was captured jointly with Sven Eklund using our 3 robotic telescopes located in Southern Spain.
Image processing by Marcel Drechsler.
An international team of astronomers led by members of the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) and Department of Physics at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), have discovered a rare celestial jewel–a so-called Planetary Nebula (PN) inside a 500 million-year-old Galactic Open Cluster (OC) called M37 (also known as NGC2099). This is a very rare finding of high astrophysical value. Their findings have just been published in the prestigious open-access paper Astrophysical Journal Letters. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/ac88c1
The planetary nebula, known as IPHASX J055226.2+323724, is only the 3rd example of an association between a planetary nebula and open cluster out of the ~4,000 planetary nebulae known in our Galaxy. It also appears to be the oldest planetary nebula ever found. The small team led by Professor Quentin Parker, Director of the HKU LSR, have determined some interesting properties for their discovery: the authors found the PN has a “kinematic age” of 70,000 years. This estimate is based on how fast the nebula is expanding, as determined from the PN emission lines, and assuming this speed has remained effectively the same since the beginning, and is the time elapsed since the nebular shell was first ejected by the host, a dying star. This compares to typical PN ages of 5,000-25,000 years. It is truly a grand old dame in planetary nebula terms but of course a mere “blink of the eye” in terms of the life of the original star itself that runs to hundreds of millions of years.
arxiv.org/abs/2210.07554
TARGET
Nomenclature: M37, IPHASX J055226.2+323724
Right Ascension: 05:52:26.18
Declination: +32:37:24.63
Size: 445 arc seconds
EQUIPMENT USED
Twin APM TMB LZOS 152 refractors, Celestron EdgeHd 14"
10Micron GM2000 HPS mount, iOptron CEM120
Twin QSI6120 CCD cameras, ZWO ASI6200M Pro
Astrodon filters
Nomenclature: M37, IPHASX J055226.2+323724
Right Ascension: 05:52:26.18
Declination: +32:37:24.63
Size: 445 arc seconds
EQUIPMENT USED
Twin APM TMB LZOS 152 refractors, Celestron EdgeHd 14"
10Micron GM2000 HPS mount, iOptron CEM120
Twin QSI6120 CCD cameras, ZWO ASI6200M Pro
Astrodon filters
IMAGE CAPTURE
Blue: 33x300"
Green: 33x300"
Red: 35x300"
Ha: 77x900" bin 1x1, 102x300" bin 1x1
OIII: 107x900" bin 1x1, 257x300" bin 1x1
Total Integration: 84 hours 20 minutes
Pixel scale: 0.530 arcsec/pixel
Field radius: 0.376 degrees
Capture dates: 30 August - 10 September 2022
Capture location: Fregenal de la Sierra, Spain
Blue: 33x300"
Green: 33x300"
Red: 35x300"
Ha: 77x900" bin 1x1, 102x300" bin 1x1
OIII: 107x900" bin 1x1, 257x300" bin 1x1
Total Integration: 84 hours 20 minutes
Pixel scale: 0.530 arcsec/pixel
Field radius: 0.376 degrees
Capture dates: 30 August - 10 September 2022
Capture location: Fregenal de la Sierra, Spain
IMAGE PROCESSING:
PixInsight and Photoshop
PixInsight and Photoshop
Ha image
OIII image
