Astronomy Picture of the Day ·

NGC 5307: A Symmetric Planetary Nebula

The Astronomy Picture of the Day for December 31, 1997 is “NGC 5307: A Symmetric Planetary Nebula,” an image. It is credited to Credit: H. Bond (STScI) & R. Ciardullo (Penn State), WFPC2, HST, NASA. The original explanation runs about 121 words.

NGC 5307: A Symmetric Planetary Nebula
Credit: H. Bond (STScI) & R. Ciardullo (Penn State), WFPC2, HST, NASA Shown from science.nasa.gov. Not hosted by OpenOrbit.

From the explanation

“Some stellar nebulae are strangely symmetric. For example, every major blob of gas visible on the upper left of NGC 5307 appears to have a counterpart on the lower right.”

— APOD editors, December 31, 1997

Read the full explanation on science.nasa.gov

At a glance

Date
December 31, 1997
Type
Image
Credit
Credit: H. Bond (STScI) & R. Ciardullo (Penn State), WFPC2, HST, NASA
Copyright
No copyright notice on the entry. Check the credited institution’s own usage rules before reusing it.
Explanation length
About 121 words

All of December 1997 → · 1997 by month → · Full archive since 1995 →

Topics in this entry

Nebulae

Topics are matched from words in the title and explanation.

On this day: December 31 in other years

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Source

Copy taken Oct 28, 2026, 2:39 AM EDT. The image and explanation belong to their creators. OpenOrbit is not affiliated with or endorsed by NASA.