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heic2020 – Photo release
December 3, 2020
Astronomers have had a rare glimpse of a rapidly fading shroud of gas around an aging star. Archived data from the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals that the Hen 3-1357 nebula, nicknamed the Stingray Nebula, has been precipitously erased over the past two decades. Witnessing such a rapid rate of change in a planetary nebula is extremely unprecedented, the researchers say.
Even though the Universe is constantly changing, most processes are too slow to be observed in a human lifetime. However, the Stingray Nebula now offers scientists a special opportunity to observe the evolution of a system in real time.
Images captured by Hubble in 2016, compared to Hubble images taken in 1996, show a nebula whose luminosity has dramatically decreased and changed shape. The bright blue gas shells near the nebula’s center are all but gone, and the wavy edges that earned this nebula its aquatic-themed name are all but gone. The young nebula no longer appears against the black velvet background of the distant Universe.
Researchers have discovered unprecedented changes in the light emitted by the glowing gas – nitrogen, hydrogen and oxygen – which is blown out by the dying star in the center of the nebula. The oxygen emission, in particular, dropped in brightness by a factor of almost 1000.
“In most studies, the nebula usually gets bigger”, said Bruce Balick of the University of Washington, US, who led the new research. “Here it is fundamentally changing shape and weakening at an unprecedented rate.”
“Due to the optical stability of Hubble, we are very, very confident that this nebula will change in brightness,” said Martin Guerrero, team member at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía in Granada, Spain. “It’s easy to see because, unlike the Nebula, all of the other stars in the Hubble image – including a distant companion star – have remained constant in brightness.“
The researchers note that while speculating on the causes of this startling discovery, it is important to explore the properties of the dying star at the center of the Stingray Nebula, which influences the structure and brightness of the nebula.
A 2016 study by Nicole Reindl of the University of Leicester, UK, and a team of international researchers, also using Hubble data, noted that the star at the center of the Stingray nebula, SAO 244567, is special in itself.
Observations from 1971 to 2002 showed that the star’s temperature skyrocketed to almost ten times hotter than the surface of our Sun. Reindl believes the temperature jump was caused by a brief flash of helium fusion that occurred outside the core of the central star. After that, the star began to cool again, returning to its previous stage of stellar evolution.
The team studying the rapid fading of the Stingray Nebula can only speculate at this time about what awaits for the future of this young nebula.
More information
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between ESA and NASA.
The international team of astronomers for this study consists of B. Balick, M. Guerrero and G. Ramos-Larios
Image credit: NASA, ESA, B. Balick (University of Washington), M. Guerrero (Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía) and G. Ramos-Larios (University of Guadalajara)
Connections
Contacts
Bruce balick
Washington University
Seattle, Washington
Email: [email protected]
Warrior martin
Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia
Granada, Spain
Email: [email protected]
Bethany downer
ESA / Hubble, responsible for public information
Garching, Germany
Email: [email protected]
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