A dying star...

[MIKE BURN]

29-Apr-2004: The Bug Nebula, NGC 6302, is one of the brightest and most extreme planetary nebulae known. At its centre lies a superhot, dying star smothered in a blanket of hailstones. A new Hubble image reveals fresh detail in the wings of this cosmic butterfly.





Most planetary nebulae are distinctive, but few are as extreme as NGC 6302, also known as the Bug Nebula. The fiery, dying star at its centre is shrouded by a blanket of icy hailstones. Robert Frost’s 1920 poem “Fire and Ice” could have been written for this object:





Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.



This image of the Bug Nebula, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows impressive walls of compressed gas, laced with trailing strands and bubbling outflows. A dark, dusty torus surrounds the inner nebula (seen at the upper right). At the heart of the turmoil is one of the hottest stars known. Despite a sizzling temperature of at least 250,000 degrees C, the star itself has never been seen, as it is hidden by the blanket of dust and shines most brightly in the ultraviolet, making it hard to observe.



Chemically, the composition of the Bug Nebula also makes it one of the more interesting objects known. Earlier observations with the European Space Agency's Infrared Space Observatory, ISO, have shown that the dusty torus contains hydrocarbons, carbonates such as calcite, as well as water ice and iron. The presence of carbonates is interesting. In the solar system, their presence is taken as evidence for liquid water in the past, because carbonates form when carbon dioxide dissolves in liquid water and forms sediments. But its detection in nebulae such as the Bug Nebula, where no liquid water has existed, shows that other formation processes cannot be excluded.

MIKE


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[MIKE BURN]

[LORD LENSAJUICE]

Awsome pics Mike





Paul

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[bbchris]

Wow! Look at those pics!! The star is surrounded by icy hailstones? AMAZING! Thanks Mike for posting!

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[Seismic Anamoly]

Is that what this is??

Edited by: Seismic Anamoly  at: 4/30/04 4:02 am

[DreamTone7]

Awsomely beautiful...

[RonOnGuitar]

That's a great pic, Mike! I like to check NASAs "pic of the day" site, the photos are sometimes very amazing!



Here's a small version of one of NASAs past "pic of the day". It's another dying star called "NGC 7293: The Helix Nebula", but it's been nicknamed (der Spitzname oder der Spottname? ) "the eye of God".









The better and bigger picture link to it is:



Helix Nebula - "eye of God"



The link for the daily NASA Pic Of The Day.



Ever lay on a blanket at night (I mean outdoors on the grass, lol) and just look up at all the stars? They look like jewels laid out on a jewelry seller's cloth. All you can do is just think "Wow"!

Edited by: RonOnGuitar at: 4/30/04 11:52 am