Stingray nebula
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Planetary Nebula Hen 3-1357 / Stingray Nebula |
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| The Stingray Nebula captured by the Hubble Space Telescope | |
| AladinLite | |
| Constellation | altar |
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Position equinox : J2000.0 |
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| Right ascension | 17h 16m 21.071s |
| declination | −59 ° 29 ′ 23.64 ″ |
| Appearance | |
| Apparent brightness (visual) | 10.75 mag |
| Angular expansion | 1.9 ′ × 1.9 ′ |
| Central star | |
| Physical data | |
| distance | approx. 18000 ly (approx. 5600 pc ) |
| history | |
| discovery |
as an emission line star: Lloyd R. Wackerling, 1970 / Karl Gordon Henize , 1976 as a planetary nebula: Parthasarathy et al., IUE , 1993 |
| Catalog names | |
| PK 331-12 1 • PN G331.3-12.1 | |
The Stingray Nebula , also Hen 3-1357 , is a planetary nebula that was cataloged by Karl Gordon Henize in 1976. It lies in the constellation Altar and is about 18,000 light years away. It is the youngest of all planetary nebulae observed so far. The object is named according to the stingray (English stingray , because the observable form of mist) is similar to such a skate.
structure
In the middle of the nebula lies a binary star system. The nebula comes from a former red giant that has since turned into a white dwarf . The remaining white dwarf has an estimated mass of 0.6 solar masses . He is accompanied by a second star. Because of their gravitational interaction, both stars are connected by a fine trace of gas. The nebula is very young and therefore still very small. It is only about a tenth the size of other known planetary nebulae.
dynamics
Sun-like stars develop into red giants at the end of their life cycle. In doing so, they repel their outermost layers into space, which later form the nebula. Meanwhile, such a star is getting hotter. With its intensifying radiation, it makes the repelled gas glow. When it was first observed in the late 1960s, the central star was not yet hot enough to cause its gas to glow. He has only been able to manage this heating process since the mid-1980s.
meaning
The Stingray Nebula came into being after the discovery of the original red giant, which is so far unique. This enabled new knowledge to be gained. In their models, researchers did not expect the short transition period of just 20 years during which the red giant developed into a planetary nebula. More than 100 years of development were assumed here.
Discovery story
In a catalog published in 1976, Karl Gordon Henize classified the predecessor star of the Stingray Nebula as a star with an H-alpha emission line based on photo plates from the years 1949 to 1951 . Since spectra recorded in 1971 show a AGB star , a red supergiant of the type B1 or B2, and thus the preliminary stage of a planetary nebula, the formation of the planetary nebula must have taken place after this point in time. The first indications of the formation of a planetary nebula were found in 1989 through the analysis of IRAS data. In 1993 Parthasarathy et al. confirm with the International Ultraviolet Explorer that it is now a planetary nebula.
Web links
- Hen 1357 - Article about H 3-1357 at Astro.GoBlack . Accessed August 9, 2010.
- The rapidly evolving planetary nebula Hen 3-1357 (English) bibcode : 2002fuse.prop.Q304G
- The Earliest Production of Hot Gas in Young Planetary Nebulae (English) bibcode : 2005xmm..prop ... 95G
- M. Parthasarathy: Birth and early evolution of planetary nebulae (English) bibcode : 2000BASI ... 28..217P
- The Youngest Known Planetary Nebula - Short article on Hen 3-1357 on the Hubble website . Accessed August 9, 2010.
- Name Stingray Nebula (English) - database entry for Hen 3-1357 in the SIMBAD Astronomical Database . Accessed August 9, 2010.
swell
- ^ KG Henize: Observations of southern emission-line stars , bibcode : 1976ApJS ... 30..491H