The Hubble Space Telescope continues to produce spectacular images, this time of a planetary nebula formed from the mantle thrown by our Sun-like star that ended its life
Another beautiful photograph of the Hubble Space Telescope - a unique planetary nebula located in an open star cluster. Both the cluster (NGC 2818A) and the nebula (NGC 2818) are 100 light-years away in the Pyxis constellation.
The spectacular structure contains the outer layer of our sun-like star that was sent into interstellar space during the final phase of that sun's life. The glowing gases are enveloped when they are shadowed by the star after it has exhausted its fuel and can no longer carry out nuclear reactions in its core.
Our sun is expected to have a different fate, in about 5 billion years. Some believe this is a beautiful way to go. The image was taken in November 2008 using Hubble's Planetary Field Camera 2. NGC 2818 is one of the few planetary nebulae in our galaxy that is in an open cluster. The colors in the image represent a range of emissions coming from the clouds in the nebula: red represents nitrogen, green represents hydrogen, and blue represents oxygen atoms.
Open clusters are loosely connected and disperse over millions of years. Stars that form planetary nebulae live for billions of years, so it is rare for an open cluster to survive long enough for one of its members to form a planetary nebula. This open cluster is extremely ancient and its age is estimated to be close to a billion years.
Planetary nebulae can develop a variety of forms. NGC 2818 has a complex structure that is difficult to interpret. However, due to its location within the cluster, astronomers have access to information about the nebula, such as age and distance, that would otherwise be impossible to estimate.
A planetary nebula also dissipates and disappears within a few tens of thousands of years. The hot remnants of the core of the star NGC 2818 will eventually cool over billions of years, during which the remaining body will appear to observers as a white dwarf.
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Interesting with our location in the galaxy affecting evolution..?
Thanks, I love reading you Hayadan Friends!
Hello to nothing,
I am a relatively regular reader of the site, and I must point out that all the images you upload cannot be enlarged (viewed in a large size), I will point out that this is the case in both Firefox and IE. Is there a way to upload the images so that we can click on them and see a larger image. (If this is not possible, maybe some link).
Thanks in advance,
white dwarf
A. Ben-Ner:
Again - I don't know where the nebula is, but it seems to me that there is no similar chance at the edge of the galaxy.
I don't understand how you deduced that my version is on the edge of the galaxy.
As I mentioned - there is no point in the galaxy (including its edge) that is 100 thousand light years away from us and the farthest point from us that is still on the edge of the galaxy is 75,000 light years away.
This means that the nebula is at a distance that certainly exceeds 25,000 light years from the edge of the galaxy and most likely the distance is much greater because if it is at such a distance it is - from our point of view - in the background of a large part of the galaxy which actually interferes with seeing it.
The best chance to see a nebula of this kind is precisely if it is not at all in the plane of the galaxy.
To Michael R. (formerly Michael)
Also for your version, the 2818-NGC is located at the edge of the galaxy.
Maybe that's why it's observable
clear It is possible that, even if it was closer to us but, in the vicinity of the center of the galaxy, it would not have been possible to observe it with the same sharpness due to strong background "blinding".
I understood that the Andromeda galaxy is supposed to start merging with the Milky Way around this time (meaning about another 5 billion years), so it is possible that the sun will be swallowed by the supermassive black hole in the heart of the Andromeda galaxy before it reaches its natural end or will be thrown into space due to the gravitational waves created in one From the crossings of the galaxies this way.
In any case, an impressive ending.
Pine:
There is no reason to write things you are not familiar with.
The sun is about 25000 light years from the center of the galaxy (respectively - 25000 light years from the closest point on its edge and 75000 light years from the farthest point on the edge of the galaxy).
The thickness at the edge of the galaxy is so small that it has no effect at all.
This, as mentioned, is beyond the fact that it is possible to go 100,000 light years even in directions that are not at all in the plane of the galaxy.
Michael, don't forget that we are relatively close (probably) to the edge of the galaxy, and that the galaxy has a certain width (and therefore the measured distance is not on the plane of the galaxy), so it is quite possible that we are close to 100000 light years from the nebula, assuming that it is also close to the edge of the galaxy .
And of course, it's possible that Mamar "rounded off" the distance a bit. If 96,000 light years had been indicated, would it have been more acceptable to you?
A. Ben-Ner:
I don't know where the nebula is, but I would like to point out two facts:
If the diameter of the galaxy is 100,000 light years and we are not at its edge, then there is no point in the galaxy that is 100,000 light years away from us.
In general, structures that are at a given distance from us are on a sphere, even if it intersects the galaxy, if its diameter is large, most of it is not at all in the plane of the galaxy.
As far as I know the diameter of our galaxy is in sg. of about 100,000 light years. Namely, that the planetary nebula 2818-NGC is at the far edge of the galaxy.
Or am I wrong?
What determines whether you can see is not the distance, but the angular size, which is the difference between the size of the object and the distance.
How can you see it? After all, a distance of 100 thousand light years is huge, how do you get there?