Posts Tagged ‘butterfly nebula’
Xs, Boomerangs and Butterflies
Credit: NASA & ESA
The wings of gas and dust of the Boomerang Nebula blossom into the letter X. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this image of twin reflecting clouds of gas and dust being ejected from this star. Astronomers call these bi-polar nebulae, butterfly nebulae or bow-tie nebulae. Scientists aren’t sure why the material from the star is being ejected in this way. Perhaps denser material across the star’s middle is forcing the star to eject gas and dust at the star’s poles. Or, maybe magnetic fields are funneling material toward the poles.
Holiday Ribbon
Credit: NASA & ESA
Tying up this starry present is the Boomerang Nebula. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this image of twin reflecting clouds of gas and dust being ejected from this star. Astronomers call these bi-polar nebulae, butterfly nebulae or bow-tie nebulae. Scientists aren’t sure why the material from the star is being ejected in this way. Perhaps denser material at the equator is forcing the star to eject gas and dust at the star’s poles. Or, maybe magnetic fields are funneling material toward the poles.
Holiday Ribbon
Credit: NASA & ESA
Tying up this starry present is the Boomerang Nebula. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope took this image of twin reflecting clouds of gas and dust being ejected from this star. Astronomers call these bi-polar nebulae, butterfly nebulae or bow-tie nebulae. Scientists aren’t sure why the material from the star is being ejected in this way. Perhaps denser material at the equator is forcing the star to eject gas and dust at the star’s poles. Or, maybe magnetic fields are funneling material toward the poles.
Garden Spider
Credit: NASA, ESA, and K. Noll (STScI)
In the starry gardens of the constellation of Puppis, you’ll find this butterfly or spider-looking nebula. NGC 2440 is a planetary nebula and is the remains of a star like our Sun. The central star cast off its outer layers as it came to the point where it could no longer keep up nuclear fusion in its core. Nuclear fusion is what powers a star, giving out light, heat and other radiation. Ultraviolet light from the burned-out star, called a white dwarf, causes the gas around the star to glow. Find the white dot in the center of the nebula.
Emerging Butterfly
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble SM4 ERO Team
A newly updated Hubble wows us with this image of the Bug Nebula. Also known as the Butterfly Nebula, this new image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shows glowing gas shot out from a central star. The wings of the butterfly stretch for more than two-light years, about half the distance to the Sun’s nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri.
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