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On the left is an image of the Jewel Bug Nebula (NGC 7027) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2019 and released in 2020. Further analysis by the researchers produced the RGB image on the right, which shows the extinction due to dust, as deduced from the relative strength of two hydrogen emission lines, in red; emission of sulfur, relative to hydrogen, in green form; and the emission of iron as blue. Credits: STScI, Alyssa Pagan
Images of two iconic planetary nebulae taken by the The Hubble Space Telescope reveal new information about how they develop their dramatic characteristics. Researchers from the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Green Bank Observatory presented new findings on the Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302) and the Jewel Bug Nebula (NGC 7027) at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Friday January 15, 2021.
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observed nebulae in 2019 and early 2020 using all of its panchromatic capabilities, and astronomers involved in the project used images of emission lines ranging from near ultraviolet to near infrared to learn more about their properties. The studies were the first panchromatic imaging surveys of their kind designed to understand the formation process and test patterns of formation of planetary nebulae driven by binary stars.
“We dissect them,” said Joel Kastner, professor at RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and the School of Physics and Astronomy. “We are able to see the effect of the dying central star in the way it loses and shreds its ejected matter. We now see where the material the central star threw away is dominated by ionized gas, where it is dominated by cooler dust, and even how hot gas is ionized, whether by UV from the star or by collisions caused by his present. , fast winds.
At the top is an image of the Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302) captured by the Hubble Space Telescope in 2019 and released in 2020. Further analysis by the researchers produced the RGB image on the background, which shows the extinction due to dust, as deduced from the strength of two hydrogen emission lines, in red; emission of nitrogen, relative to hydrogen, in green form; and the emission of iron as blue. Credit: STScI, APOD / J. Schmidt; J. Kastner (RIT) et al.
Kastner said analysis of the new HST images of the butterfly nebula confirms that the nebula was ejected only about 2,000 years ago – a blink of an eye by astronomical standards – and established that the S-shaped iron emission that gives it the “wings” of the gas is even younger. Surprisingly, they found that although astronomers previously believed they had located the central star of the nebula, this previously identified star is in fact not associated with the nebula and is rather much closer to Earth than the Nebula. butterfly. Kastner said he hopes future studies with the James Webb Space Telescope could help locate the real dying star in the heart of the nebula.
The team’s ongoing analysis of the Jewel Bug Nebula is based on a 25-year basis of measurements dating back to the first images from Hubble. Paula Moraga Baez, Ph.D. in Astrophysical Science and Technology. student from DeKalb, Ill., called the nebula “remarkable for its unusual juxtaposition of circular, axisymmetric, and symmetrical (bipolar) symmetrical structures.” Moraga noted, “The nebula also retains large masses of molecular gases and dust although it harbors a hot central star and displays high states of excitation.”
The RGB image on the right reveals the spatial separation of CO + (red) and HCO + (blue) molecules, indicative of UV and X processes, respectively. The much deeper optical image of [O III] (green) provides a juxtaposition of the ionized atomic structure and that of radio-molecular observations. Credit: STScI, Alyssa Pagan; J. Bublitz (NRAO / GBO) et al.
Jesse Bublitz ’20 Ph.D. (astrophysical science and technology), now a postdoctoral researcher at Green Bank Observatory, extended the NGC 7027 team’s analysis with radio images from the Northern Extended Millimeter Array Telescope (NOEMA), to from which he identified molecular tracers of the impact of ultraviolet and X-ray light continues to alter the chemistry of the nebula. The combined observations of telescopes at other wavelengths, like Hubble, and of NOEMA’s bright CO + and HCO + molecules indicate how different regions of NGC 7027 are affected by high-energy radiation from its central star.
“We are very excited about these results,” said Bublitz. “We had hoped to find a structure that clearly showed that CO + and HCO + coincide spatially or entirely in separate regions, which we did. This is the first map of NGC 7027, or any planetary nebula, in the CO + molecule, and only the second CO + map from any astronomical source.
Meeting: 237th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society
Besides Kastner, Moraga and Bublitz, the research team involved in the HST imaging work includes Rodolfo Montez Jr. ’10 Ph.D. (astrophysical science and technology) from Harvard-Smithsonian CfA; Bruce Balick from Washington University; as well as Adam Frank and Eric Blackman of the University of Rochester. Bublitz’s international team of collaborators on NGC 7027 radio-molecular line imaging includes Kastner, Montez Jr. and astrophysicists from Spain, France and Brazil.
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