Wednesday, October 23, 2013

This Planetary Nebula Comes With a Twist

This Planetary Nebula Comes With a Twist:
This Planetary Nebula Comes With a Twist
Planetary nebulae imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
From the Cat’s Eye to the Eskimo, planetary nebulae are arguably among the most dazzling objects in the Universe. These misnamed stellar remnants are created when the outer layers of a dying star blows off and expands into space. However, they can look radically different from one another, revealing complicated histories and structures.
But recently, astronomers have argued that some of the most exotic shapes are the result of not one, but two stars at the center. It is the interaction between the progenitor star and a binary companion that shapes the resulting planetary nebula.
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© Shannon Hall for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |No comment |
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