Chance Meeting Creates Celestial Diamond Ring - Panning across plane...
Δημοσιεύθηκε στις 9 Απρ 2014
This pan video gives a close-up look
at an eye-catching new image of planetary nebula Abell 33 taken using
ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Created when an aging star blew off
its outer layers, this beautiful blue bubble is, by chance, aligned
with a foreground star, and bears an uncanny resemblance to a diamond
engagement ring. This cosmic gem is unusually symmetric, appearing to be
almost perfectly circular on the sky.
Astronomers using ESO's
Very Large Telescope in Chile have captured this eye-catching image of
planetary nebula PN A66 33 — usually known as Abell 33. Created when an
aging star blew off its outer layers, this beautiful blue bubble is, by
chance, aligned with a foreground star, and bears an uncanny resemblance
to a diamond engagement ring. This cosmic gem is unusually symmetric,
appearing to be almost circular on the sky.
Most stars with
masses similar to that of our Sun will end their lives as white dwarfs —
small, very dense, and hot bodies that slowly cool down over billions
of years. On the way to this final phase of their lives the stars throw
their atmospheres out into the space and create planetary nebulae,
colourful glowing clouds of gas surrounding the small, bright stellar
relics.
This image, captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT),
shows the remarkably round planetary nebula Abell 33, located roughly
2500 light-years from Earth. Being perfectly round is uncommon for these
objects — usually something disturbs the symmetry and causes the
planetary nebula to display irregular shapes [1].
The strikingly
bright star located along the rim of the nebula creates a beautiful
illusion in this VLT image. This is just a chance alignment — the star,
named HD 83535, lies in the foreground of the nebula, between Earth and
Abell 33, in just the right place to make this view even more beautiful.
Together, HD 83535 and Abell 33 create a sparkling diamond ring.
The
remnant of Abell 33's progenitor star, on its way to becoming a white
dwarf, can be seen just slightly off-centre inside the nebula, visible
as a tiny white pearl. It is still bright — more luminous than our own
Sun — and emits enough ultraviolet radiation to make the bubble of
expelled atmosphere glow [2].
Abell 33 is just one of the 86
objects included in astronomer George Abell's 1966 Abell Catalogue of
Planetary Nebulae. Abell also scoured the skies for galaxy clusters,
compiling the Abell Catalogue of over 4000 of these clusters in both the
northern and southern hemispheres of the sky.
This image uses
data from the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS)
instrument attached to the VLT, which were acquired as part of the ESO
Cosmic Gems programme [3].
Notes
[1] For example, the way the star spins, or if the central star is one component of a double or multiple star system.
[2]
In this very sharp image the central star appears to be double. Whether
this is a real association or just a chance alignment is not known.
[3]
The ESO Cosmic Gems programme is an outreach initiative to produce
images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using
ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The
programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science
observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific
purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO's science
archive.
at an eye-catching new image of planetary nebula Abell 33 taken using
ESO's Very Large Telescope in Chile. Created when an aging star blew off
its outer layers, this beautiful blue bubble is, by chance, aligned
with a foreground star, and bears an uncanny resemblance to a diamond
engagement ring. This cosmic gem is unusually symmetric, appearing to be
almost perfectly circular on the sky.
Astronomers using ESO's
Very Large Telescope in Chile have captured this eye-catching image of
planetary nebula PN A66 33 — usually known as Abell 33. Created when an
aging star blew off its outer layers, this beautiful blue bubble is, by
chance, aligned with a foreground star, and bears an uncanny resemblance
to a diamond engagement ring. This cosmic gem is unusually symmetric,
appearing to be almost circular on the sky.
Most stars with
masses similar to that of our Sun will end their lives as white dwarfs —
small, very dense, and hot bodies that slowly cool down over billions
of years. On the way to this final phase of their lives the stars throw
their atmospheres out into the space and create planetary nebulae,
colourful glowing clouds of gas surrounding the small, bright stellar
relics.
This image, captured by ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT),
shows the remarkably round planetary nebula Abell 33, located roughly
2500 light-years from Earth. Being perfectly round is uncommon for these
objects — usually something disturbs the symmetry and causes the
planetary nebula to display irregular shapes [1].
The strikingly
bright star located along the rim of the nebula creates a beautiful
illusion in this VLT image. This is just a chance alignment — the star,
named HD 83535, lies in the foreground of the nebula, between Earth and
Abell 33, in just the right place to make this view even more beautiful.
Together, HD 83535 and Abell 33 create a sparkling diamond ring.
The
remnant of Abell 33's progenitor star, on its way to becoming a white
dwarf, can be seen just slightly off-centre inside the nebula, visible
as a tiny white pearl. It is still bright — more luminous than our own
Sun — and emits enough ultraviolet radiation to make the bubble of
expelled atmosphere glow [2].
Abell 33 is just one of the 86
objects included in astronomer George Abell's 1966 Abell Catalogue of
Planetary Nebulae. Abell also scoured the skies for galaxy clusters,
compiling the Abell Catalogue of over 4000 of these clusters in both the
northern and southern hemispheres of the sky.
This image uses
data from the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph (FORS)
instrument attached to the VLT, which were acquired as part of the ESO
Cosmic Gems programme [3].
Notes
[1] For example, the way the star spins, or if the central star is one component of a double or multiple star system.
[2]
In this very sharp image the central star appears to be double. Whether
this is a real association or just a chance alignment is not known.
[3]
The ESO Cosmic Gems programme is an outreach initiative to produce
images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using
ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The
programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science
observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific
purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO's science
archive.
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Τυπική άδεια YouTubeΑΝΑΡΤΗΣΗ ΑΠΟ ΤΟ YOUTUBE 12/4/2014
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