07-Oct-2009, 03:33 PM
NASA - Butterfly Nebula
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the "butterfly
wing"- shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2,000
light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation
Monoceros.
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons
of gas heated to more than 36000 degrees Fahrenheit
It represents the spectacular "last gasp" of a binary star system
at the nebula's centre. At the centre of the nebula lies a pair
of stars that are so close together that they orbit around each
other every 16 days. This is so close that, even with Hubble, the
pair of stars cannot be seen as two separate components.
Astronomers believe that one of the stars, when it evolved and
expanded to become a red giant, actually swallowed its companion
star in an act of stellar cannibalism. The resulting interaction
led to a spiraling together of the two stars, culminating in
ejection of the outer layers of the red giant. Most of the outer
layers were ejected into a dense disk, which can still be seen in
the Hubble image, surrounding the central star.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegall...e_285.html
This image, together with a detailed overview of the Nebula, was featured
on "The Sky at Night" Monday evening on BBC4 by "dear old" Patrick Moore,
(repeated Saturday 10th October on BBC2 at 14:10 for anyone who may want
to see the programme).
The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the "butterfly
wing"- shaped nebula, NGC 2346. The nebula is about 2,000
light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation
Monoceros.
What resemble dainty butterfly wings are actually roiling cauldrons
of gas heated to more than 36000 degrees Fahrenheit
It represents the spectacular "last gasp" of a binary star system
at the nebula's centre. At the centre of the nebula lies a pair
of stars that are so close together that they orbit around each
other every 16 days. This is so close that, even with Hubble, the
pair of stars cannot be seen as two separate components.
Astronomers believe that one of the stars, when it evolved and
expanded to become a red giant, actually swallowed its companion
star in an act of stellar cannibalism. The resulting interaction
led to a spiraling together of the two stars, culminating in
ejection of the outer layers of the red giant. Most of the outer
layers were ejected into a dense disk, which can still be seen in
the Hubble image, surrounding the central star.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegall...e_285.html
This image, together with a detailed overview of the Nebula, was featured
on "The Sky at Night" Monday evening on BBC4 by "dear old" Patrick Moore,
(repeated Saturday 10th October on BBC2 at 14:10 for anyone who may want
to see the programme).