Hubble Uncovers Brilliant Star in Milky Way's Core

Esahubble_opo9733a_1024

esahubble_opo9733a October 8th, 1997

Credit: Don F. Figer (UCLA), and NASA/ESA

One of the intrinsically brightest stars in our galaxy appears as the bright white dot in the centre of this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Hubble's Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) was needed to take the picture, because the star is hidden at the galactic center, behind obscuring dust. NICMOS' infrared vision penetrated the dust to reveal the star, which is glowing with the radiance of 10 million suns.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9733a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Pistol Nebula
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Appearance > Emission > H II Region
Esahubble_opo9733a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 17h 46m 15.4s
DEC = -28° 50’ 1.1”
Orientation
North is 45.6° CW
Field of View
0.6 x 0.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Sagittarius

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Hubble (NICMOS) -
Esahubble_opo9733a_1280
×
ID
opo9733a
Subject Category
B.4.2.1.1  
Subject Name
Pistol Nebula
Credits
Don F. Figer (UCLA), and NASA/ESA
Release Date
1997-10-08T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9733a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
NICMOS
Color Assignment
Band
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
266.564350459, -28.8336351224
Reference Dimension
505.0, 508.0
Reference Pixel
252.5, 254.0
Scale
-2.10693019316e-05, 2.10693019316e-05
Rotation
-45.599999999999973
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
opo9733a
Resource URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/original/opo9733a.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2003-12-09T17:48:54+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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