Poster abstract details

The expansion proper motions in NGC~6302 have been measured from two epochs of HST imaging, separated by 9.43 years in the [N~II] 6583\AA\ filter from HST WF/PC2 and WFC3. The proper motions of a set of 200 individual tiles within 90$"$ of the central star were found. The velocity field shows a characteristic linear increase of velocity with radial distance (a so-called Hubble flow). It agrees well with a previous ground-based determination by Meaburn et al. (2008) in a lobe further from the star. The pattern of proper motion vectors is mostly radial and the origin is close to the position of the central star directly detected by Szyszka et al. (2009). The results show that the lobes of NGC~6302 were ejected during a brief event $2250\pm35$yr ago. In the inner regions there is evidence for a subsequent acceleration of the gas by an additional 9.2 km/s, possibly related to the onset of ionization.