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heic2020 – Photo release
December 3, 2020
Astronomers have glimpsed a rare glimpse of a rapidly dissolving gas veil around an aging star. Archival data from NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the Hen Nebula 3-1357, dubbed the Stingray Nebula, has vanished precipitously over the past two decades. Seeing such a rapid rate of change in a planetary nebula is extremely unprecedented, the researchers say.
Even though the Universe is constantly changing, most of the processes are too slow to be observed in human life. However, the Stingray Nebula now offers scientists a special opportunity to observe the evolution of a system in real time.
The images captured by Hubble in 2016, compared to the Hubble images taken in 1996, show a nebula that has drastically reduced in brightness and changed shape. The bright blue gas shells near the nebula’s center have all but disappeared, and the wavy edges that earned this nebula its water-themed name have virtually disappeared. The young nebula no longer appears against the black velvet background of the distant Universe.
Researchers have discovered unprecedented changes in the light emitted by the glowing gas – nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen – which is ejected by the dying star at the center of the nebula. The oxygen emission, in particular, decreased in brightness by a factor of nearly 1000.
“In most studies, the nebula usually gets bigger,” said Bruce Balick of the University of Washington, USA, who led the new research. “Here, it is radically changing its shape and getting weaker, and it does so in an unprecedented amount of time.”
“Due to Hubble’s optical stability, we are very, very confident that this nebula is changing in brightness”, said team member Martin Guerrero of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Granada, Spain. “It is easy to see since, unlike the nebula, all the other stars in the Hubble image, including a distant companion, have remained constant in brightness.“
The researchers note that while speculating about the causes of this surprising discovery, it is important to explore the properties of the dying star at the center of the Stingray Nebula, which affects the nebula’s structure and brightness.
A 2016 study by Nicole Reindl of the University of Leicester, UK, and a team of international researchers, also using Hubble data, observed that the star at the center of the Stingray Nebula, SAO 244567, is special in its own right. .
Observations from 1971 to 2002 showed that the star’s temperature skyrocketed to nearly ten times warmer than the surface of our Sun. Reindl speculates that the jump in temperature was caused by a brief flash of helium melting. it occurred outside the core of the central star. After which the star began to cool again, returning to its previous stage of stellar evolution.
The team studying the rapid dissolution of the Stingray nebula can only speculate right now what is in store for the future of this young nebula.
More information
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between ESA and NASA.
This research was accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal.
The international team of astronomers involved in this study is composed of B. Balick, M. Guerrero and G. Ramos-Larios
Image credit: NASA, ESA, B. Balick (University of Washington), M. Guerrero (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía) and G. Ramos-Larios (University of Guadalajara)
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Contacts
Bruce Balick
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Email: [email protected]
Martin warrior
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia
Granada, Spain
Email: [email protected]
Bethany Downer
ESA / Hubble, head of public information
Garching, Germany
Email: [email protected]
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