24 JAN 2000 - Hubble Reopens Eye on the UniverseDesignated NGC 2392, it is dubbed the "Eskimo Nebula" because, as seen through ground-based telescopes, it resembles a face inside a furry parka. In Hubble's sharp view, the "furry" features resemble giant comets all pointing away from the central star, like the spokes of a wheel. "The clumps that form the comet heads all seem to be located at a similar distance from the star. This fact will be important in developing a theory of why the clumps formed in the first place," said planetary nebula expert J. Patrick Harrington of the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. He adds, "Of all the planetary nebulae imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope, this new image is unsurpassed in subtle beauty."
