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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2020 June 30
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                Bright Planetary Nebula NGC 7027 from Hubble
     Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Joel Kastner ([6]RIT) [7]et al.;
                     Processing: Alyssa Pagan ([8]STScI)

   Explanation: What created this unusual planetary nebula? [9]NGC 7027 is
   one of the smallest, brightest, and most unusually shaped [10]planetary
   nebulas known. Given its expansion rate, [11]NGC 7027 first started
   expanding, as visible from Earth, about 600 years ago. For much of its
   history, the planetary nebula has been expelling shells, as seen in
   blue in the [12]featured image. In modern times, though, for
   [13]reasons unknown, it began ejecting gas and dust (seen in red) in
   specific directions that created a new pattern that seems to have four
   corners. These shells and patterns have been mapped in impressive
   detail by [14]recent images from the [15]Wide Field Camera 3 onboard
   the [16]Hubble Space Telescope. What lies at the nebula's center is
   unknown, with [17]one hypothesis holding it to be a [18]close binary
   star system where one star sheds gas onto an erratic disk orbiting the
   other star. NGC 7027, about 3,000 [19]light years away, was first
   discovered in 1878 and [20]can be seen with a standard backyard
   telescope toward the [21]constellation of the Swan ([22]Cygnus).

                     Tomorrow's picture: inverted Earth
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    Authors & editors: [34]Robert Nemiroff ([35]MTU) & [36]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([37]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [38]Specific rights apply.
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                A service of: [40]ASD at [41]NASA / [42]GSFC
                           & [43]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2006/ngc7027_HubbleKastner_1764.jpg
   3. https://www.nasa.gov/
   4. https://www.esa.int/
   5. https://www.rit.edu/directory/jhkpci-joel-kastner
   6. https://www.rit.edu/
   7. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020AAS...23530703K/abstract
   8. https://www.stsci.edu/
   9. https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2011/
  10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_nebula
  11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_7027
  12. https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic2011c/
  13. https://i.imgflip.com/2225wb.jpg
  14. https://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic2011/
  15. https://www.spacetelescope.org/about/general/instruments/wfc3/
  16. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html
  17. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020AAS...23530703K/abstract
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060521.html
  19. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/light-year/en/
  20. https://www.spacetelescope.org/videos/heic2011d/
  21. https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/definition-what-is-a-constellation-asterism
  22. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cygnus_(constellation)
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200629.html
  24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  27. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  32. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200630
  33. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200701.html
  34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  35. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  36. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  37. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  38. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  39. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  40. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  41. https://www.nasa.gov/
  42. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  43. http://www.mtu.edu/