Messier 76also known as M76, NGC 650/651, or the Little Dumbbell Nebula, is a planetary nebula located approximately 3,400 light-years away in the northern constellation of Perseus.
This Hubble image shows Messier 76, a planetary nebula about 3,400 light-years away in the constellation Perseus. Image credit: NASA/ESA/STScI.
Since its launch in 1990, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has made 1.6 million observations of more than 53,000 celestial objects.
To date, the Space Telescope Science Institute's Mikulski Space Telescope Archive contains 184 terabytes of processed data.
Since 1990, 44,000 scientific papers have been published from Hubble observations.
Hubble is the most scientifically productive space astrophysics mission in NASA history.
Demand for the use of Hubble is so high that it is currently oversubscribed by a factor of 6 to 1.
Most of Hubble's discoveries, such as supermassive black holes, exoplanet atmospheres, gravitational lensing by dark matter, the presence of dark energy, and the abundance of interstellar planet formation, were not anticipated before launch.
To commemorate the 34th anniversary of Hubble's launch, astronomers took a snapshot of the planetary nebula Messier 76.
“Messier 76 is located approximately 3,400 light-years away in the northern constellation of Perseus,” Hubble astronomers said.
“It is classified as a planetary nebula, an expanding shell of glowing gas ejected from a dying red giant star. The star will eventually collapse into a super-dense, hot white dwarf.”
“Although planetary nebulae are not related to planets, they got their name because astronomers in the 1700s using low-power telescopes thought these types of objects resembled planets.”
“Messier 76 consists of a ring that is visible head-on as a central bar structure and two lobes located at openings on either side of the ring. Before burning out, the star ejected a ring of gas and dust. ”
“This ring was probably formed by the influence of a star that once had a binary companion.”
“This sloughed off material formed a thick disk of dust and gas along the orbital plane of the companion star.”
“The hypothetical companion star is not seen in the Hubble image, so it may have been later swallowed by the central star.”
“The host star has collapsed to form a white dwarf,” the researchers said.
“It is one of the hottest stellar remnants known, at a scorching 139,000 degrees Celsius (250,000 degrees Fahrenheit), 24 times the surface temperature of the Sun.”
“The blazing white dwarf is visible pinpointed in the center of the nebula. The stars visible projected beneath it are not part of the nebula.”
“Sandwiched by the disk, two clumps of hot gas escape from above and below the 'belt' along the star's axis of rotation perpendicular to the disk.”
“They are propelled by hurricane-like outflows of material from dying stars, tearing apart space at 2 million miles per hour.”
“That's fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in just over seven minutes.”
“This intense stellar wind is channeling cooler, slower-moving gas that was ejected during the star's early stages of life, when it was a red giant.”
“Intense ultraviolet radiation from superhot stars makes the gas glow. The red color is due to nitrogen, and the blue color is due to oxygen.”
“Given that our solar system is 4.6 billion years old, according to cosmological timekeeping, the entire nebula is a fleeting event. It will disappear in about 15,000 years.”
Source: www.sci.news
