The Egg Nebula

These data were taken after the September 1999 upgrade of IRCAM3 to its thermally-optimised counterpart, TUFTI (for L and M-band imaging). Taken under conditions of average (0.6") seeing, this narrow-band H₂ image is comparable to published HST/NICMOS images! The Egg Nebula is a proto-planetary nebula , an evolved star that is ejecting material into spectacular bipolar lobes (which here extend to the left and right). Line emission is also detected along the inner edge of a dusty torus in the equatorial plane (top and bottom). The star itself is hidden from view even at near-IR wavelengths, though it is situated in the centre of the region.

More recently, new UFTI images, in H₂, Br Gamma and continuum emission have been combined to produce this image.

Data: Chris Davis, Sandy Leggett and Andy Adamson