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NGC 5315:
When Serendipity Becomes Science
NGC 5315 is a planetary nebula about 7,000 light years from Earth in the
constellation of Circinus. Planetary nebulas are gaseous clouds that
are created in the last stages of the lifetime of a star like the Sun.
The name of "planetary nebula" is a misnomer, since these objects have
nothing to do with planets. But the term was born because these objects
look like planets when viewed through small optical telescopes. Chandra
does not always see planetary nebulas in X-ray light. Rather, they may
only become X-ray sources, like NGC 5315, when powerful winds from a
particularly young star at the center collide with the ejected material.
This image of NGC 5315 shows the box-shaped outlines for two of the
detectors on Chandra, plus the so-called aimpoint of the telescope, where
the Chandra images are the sharpest (the spatial resolution of Chandra
images, like those for other X-ray telescopes, descreases with distance
from the aimpoint). For optimal imaging of Hen 2-99, Chandra was pointed
so that this planetary nebula would fall near the aimpoint. Although Hen
2-99 was too faint to be detected, the planetary nebula NGC 5315 was
serendipitously detected a large distance away from the aimpoint, where
the image is not as sharp.
| Fast Facts for NGC 5315: |
| Credit |
NASA/CXC/RIT/J. Kastner et al. |
| Scale |
Inset is approx.
5 arcmin across |
| Category |
White Dwarfs & Planetary Nebulas |
| Coordinates (J2000) |
RA 13 h 26m 08s | Dec -29d 52m 24s |
| Constellation |
Circinus |
| Observation Date |
November 12, 2003
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| Observation Time |
8 hours |
| Obs. ID |
4480
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| Color Code |
Intensity |
| Instrument |
ACIS |
| References | Kastner, J.H. et al, 2007, ApJ, Accepted |
| Distance Estimate |
About 7,000 light years |
| Release Date |
September 27, 2007 |
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