HUBBLE NEBULA NEBULA
GALAXY1 FROM THE HUBBLE

　This photograph of the coil-shaped2  Helix3 Nebula, released Friday May 9, 2003, is one of the largest and most detailed celestial4  images ever made. The composite5 picture is a seamless6 blend of ultra-sharp images from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope7 combined with the wide view of the Mosaic Camera on the National Science Foundation's 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory8 near Tucson, Ariz. The image shows a fine web of filamentary "bicycle-spoke" features embedded9 in the colorful red and blue ring of gas. At 650 light-years away, the Helix is one of the nearest planetary10 nebula11 to Earth. A planetary nebula is the glowing gas around a dying, Sun-like star. 

　 五月九日登出的環狀螺旋星系照片，是目前拍到最大、最詳細的天體影像之一，這是一張沒有經過細縫接合，以超顯像功能所合成的照片。該照片是由美國太空總署的哈勃太空望遠鏡，及美國國家科學基金委員會，在亞利桑那州的土桑附近的基特峰國家天文台，以○.九米馬賽克廣角地面望遠鏡共同拍攝而成，這影像顯現如絲一般纖細的網形「輪狀自行車」，置身於五顏六色的氣圈中。六五○光年外，螺旋星雲是最接近地球的行星星雲之一，所謂的行星星雲，是環繞著衰微的、太陽狀星體的熾熱的氣層。