by Diego Barucco

NGC 2392
"Eskimo Nebula"
"Clown Face Nebula"

J2000
RA: 07h 29m 10,63s
Dec: +20° 54' 36,9 "
Mag. 9,90
Surface bright: 7,20
Dim.: 47 " x 43 "
Central star : 10,53
Constellation: Gemini

Discovery: W. Herschel 17 gen. 1787
Distance: 1,2 kpc
Radius: 0,135 pc

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NGC 2392 is known as Eskimo Nebula because of its singular shape. It's the most representative PN of Gemini constellation, it's a bright object and with a good angular dimension, that make it a good target also for medium-instruments. With large telescopes we can resolve the real structure of this nebula: its bright central star is surrounded by an inner shell structure,brighter and thinner, and then another concentric outer shell, more diffuse and with irregular brightness. This nebula has been hard studied by astronomers for 40 years, and now we know it's an elliptic structure elongated toward our visual direction with an angled jet. Outer shell is spread of low-ionization FLIERs (Fast Low Ionization Emission Regions), the typical filaments we see in any Eskimo image.

Interesting level: *

Essential bibliography
XMM-Newton Detection of Hot Gas in the Eskimo Nebula: Shocked Stellar Wind or Collimated Outflows? - Guerrero, M. A.; Chu, Y.-H.; Gruendl, R. A.; Meixner, M. - Astronomy and Astrophysics, v.430, p.L69-L72 (2005)

The Structure of NGC 2392 - Phillips, J. P.; Cuesta, L. - The Astronomical Journal, Volume 118, Issue 6, pp. 2929-2939 (1999)


English traslation: Renzo Ruisi

Update: Giovedì, Dicembre 13, 2007 5:03 PM

 

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