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The "Ghost of Cassiopeia", a cloud of gas and dust slowly eroding, forms a twinkling mist in this disturbing image of the Hubble Space Telescope.
The nebula, called IC 63, derives 550 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cassiopeia. Its ethereal form is influenced by far by the extremely bright variable star called Gamma Cassiopeiae. Although the star is several light-years away from the nebula, it makes its powerful presence feel with bursts of radiation, according to a statement from the European Space Agency.
This ghostly nebula IC 63, located about 550 light-years from Earth, emits alpha hydrogen radiation and also reflects the cold blue light of the powerful nearby star Gamma Cassiopeiae. The nebula is about 0.31 light years and 0.23 light years.
Credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA
The blue-white star has 19 times the mass of the sun and can reach 65,000 times the brightness of the sun, as it runs at 1.6 million kilometers per hour, which is more than 200 times the speed of the sun. rotation of the sun. the statement. It is surrounded by a disc of material that periodically bursts with this material during its furious rotation, making the star even brighter in the northern night sky.
Gamma Cassiopeiae contributes two different ways to the nebula's frightening color palate. First, the ultraviolet radiation of the star is moving toward the nebula, which energizes its hydrogen molecules and causes them to emit a dark red glow of light from alpha hydrogen. And secondly, the light of the star is reflected on the nebula dust, shining a cold blue.
The nebula region near the bright star Gamma Cassiopeiae, including the "Phantom of Cassiopeia", IC 63.
Credit: ESA / Hubble / NASA / Digitized Sky Survey 2 / Acknowledgment: Davide de Martin
Looking at the Earth, the whole region of the nebulae under the influence of Gamma Cassiopeiae is visible in autumn and winter from the northern hemisphere, but the region is very dark and the IC 63 is only a small part. This Hubble view, seen from above of the Earth's atmosphere, gives "perhaps the most detailed picture ever taken of the IC 63," ESA officials said in a statement. .
And the ultraviolet light that contributes to the ghostly glow of the nebula will also make it disappear – the radiation slowly dissipates the nebula light years, according to the statement.
One day, there may be nothing left.
Email Sarah Lewin at [email protected] or follow her. @SarahExplains. Follow us on twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook. Original article on Space.com.
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