Image 6-23
Little Ghost Nebula

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows planetary nebula NGC 6369. This object is known to amateur astronomers as the "Little Ghost Nebula," because it appears as a small, ghostly cloud surrounding the faint, dying central star. Like all planetary nebulae, NGC 6369 was formed when a dying star ejected massive amounts of material out into space. The remains of the star illuminate the gases and make them fluoresce. NGC 6369 lies in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus, at a distance estimated to be between about 2,000 and 5,000 light-years from Earth.