Hartl-Dengel-Weinberger 3 (HDW3) – Wide Field (Broadband and Narrowband)

HDW3 is an ancient planetary nebula in Perseus. The strange braided borders are the result of the gas from the planetary nebula colliding with the gasses that were already around it.

This is another one of those objects that represents the future of our sun. The central star has burned all its hydrogen and expelled its external layers. The resulting white dwarf at the center is now ionizing the expelled gas making it visible to us here on Earth.The progenitor star is the tiny blue star pointed to in this crop:

Discovered in 1982 by Ronald Weinberger, Johann Dengel, and Herbert Hartl, they estimated its distance at about 1,043 light years. Although they did not estimate an age, they do say this is a highly developed planetary nebula indicating ancient origins.

This particular image attempts to place the object in perspective by placing it in a wide field. It also comprises both broadband and narrowband data. The former to bring out the surrounding brown and orange dust and the latter to isolate the features of the nebula.