Chandra Release - November 15, 2012

Visual Description: Abell 30

The X-ray and optical image of the planetary nebula Abell 30 shows one small and one large view of a bright purple source in the center, surrounded by a glowing golden-orange cloud.  The large main image of the nebula shows a sphere shape with loosely spiralling streaks and fingers at the core, reminiscent of a holiday bauble sparkling in the candlelight.  The inner texture of the nebula resembles that of a soft, fluffy material, such as cotton candy.   These images of the planetary nebula Abell 30, or A30, show one of the clearest views ever obtained of a special phase of evolution for these objects. An inset image on the upper right is a close-up view of A30 showing X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in purple and Hubble Space Telescope data showing optical emission from oxygen ions in orange. On the lower left is the larger, full-field view showing optical and X-ray data from the Kitt Peak National Observatory and ESA's XMM-Newton, respectively. In this image the optical data show emission from oxygen (orange) and hydrogen (green and blue), and X-ray emission is colored purple.