APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07)

Comments and questions about the APOD on the main view screen.
Post Reply
User avatar
APOD Robot
Otto Posterman
Posts: 5345
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 3:27 am
Contact:

APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07)

Post by APOD Robot » Sun Aug 07, 2011 4:05 am

Image MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula

Explanation: The sands of time are running out for the central star of this hourglass-shaped planetary nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a Sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected - its core becoming a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the hourglass. The unprecedented sharpness of the HST images has revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process that are helping to resolve the outstanding mysteries of the complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulas.

<< Previous APODDiscuss Any APOD Next APOD >>
[/b]

garry
Asternaut
Posts: 8
Joined: Wed Jun 22, 2011 1:02 am

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by garry » Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:42 am

If the outer layers are being ejected, why does it take on the shape of an hour glass? There must be other forces at work to allow the outer layers to be ejected not in a symmetrical shell formation but in an asymmetrical shape.
The other question is that even if you say that the layers are being ejected say along the poles, the two arms of the hour glass should be conical, not parallel. At a specific distance from the source star, the shape changes from conical to tubular. What forces would form the tubular shape at such a distance from the star when gravity would not be able to do it? Questions!

User avatar
Ann
4725 Å
Posts: 13373
Joined: Sat May 29, 2010 5:33 am

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Ann » Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:08 am

The only thing this planetary nebula reminds me of is an eye in space. I wonder who is looking...? :wink:

Ann
Color Commentator

bto

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by bto » Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:37 am

how many times we gonna see this?

RPM

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by RPM » Sun Aug 07, 2011 6:46 am

I agree it looks like an eye. But if this pic was taken in 1995, can we not have Hubble take another now to compare the two, though it's been only 16 years, a mere blink in universe time?

Guest

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Guest » Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:51 am

Yes!It really does resemble an eye!It is a beautiful picture of a unique planetary nebula. I do wish NASA would post updated pictures though.

K1NS

Re: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07)

Post by K1NS » Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:22 am

It it not so much an hourglass but a DONUT. The parts of the donut that are towards us and behind the star aren't visible. I guess the distribution of ions must have been influenced by the star's donut-shaped magnetic field.

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by orin stepanek » Sun Aug 07, 2011 12:23 pm

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=20933
I think most planetary nebulae are fantastic! 8-)
Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

User avatar
BMAONE23
Commentator Model 1.23
Posts: 4076
Joined: Wed Feb 23, 2005 6:55 pm
Location: California

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by BMAONE23 » Sun Aug 07, 2011 12:50 pm

Is there a way to determine the age of this star?
If it is a Sun Like star and our own star is approx 1/2 way through it's 10 billion year life span, is this star then 10 billion years old?

ErnieM
Science Officer
Posts: 145
Joined: Thu Jun 30, 2011 1:58 pm

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by ErnieM » Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:06 pm

You are assuming that the ejection occurred in one big explosion similar to an exploding firework. What if there were multiple explosions at different cosmic time intervals. Would the star positions relative to its axis of rotation and its orbit when these explosions occurred have contribute to the shape of the nebula?

User avatar
neufer
Vacationer at Tralfamadore
Posts: 18805
Joined: Mon Jan 21, 2008 1:57 pm
Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by neufer » Sun Aug 07, 2011 1:46 pm

ErnieM wrote:
You are assuming that the ejection occurred in one big explosion similar to an exploding firework.
What if there were multiple explosions at different cosmic time intervals.
What if there was just a constant but strong stellar wind:
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php? ... 33#p131248
Art Neuendorffer

User avatar
ExplorerAtHeart
Ensign
Posts: 11
Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2011 10:27 pm
Contact:

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by ExplorerAtHeart » Sun Aug 07, 2011 5:11 pm

Would love to explore this stars planets, i am sure they are going through quite a time.

User avatar
NoelC
Creepy Spock
Posts: 876
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:30 am
Location: South Florida, USA; I just work in (cyber)space
Contact:

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by NoelC » Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:13 pm

Without soliciting discredited, far-fetched, or unfounded theories involving aliens or whatever...

How DO mainstream scientists explain the bipolar shapes of these nebulae? This isn't the only one - we've seen that the Ant Nebula, Eta Carinae, Red Spider Nebula, and other bipolar nebulae for example, have a similar hourglass or "two lobed" shape... There are others that happen to be aligned with us that may also be of a bipolar shape... The Ring Nebula and Helix Nebula among others come to mind.

There must be fundamental forces (magnetic? gravitational?) causing these shapes. I'd love to hear more about how they are explained.

We see a documentation from time to time, such as this page at wikipedia, that claim the exact processes aren't well known.

I'm sure I'm not the only one fascinated by the processes in stars that light up our universe with such beauty.

-Noel

User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by bystander » Sun Aug 07, 2011 7:55 pm

That page links to another that has a tentative explanation: bipolar outflow.
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

PeterM

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by PeterM » Sun Aug 07, 2011 8:49 pm

:( This one was already several times and even with the same text! Are you short of pictures?!!!
Regards,
Peter

User avatar
owlice
Guardian of the Codes
Posts: 8406
Joined: Wed Aug 04, 2004 4:18 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by owlice » Sun Aug 07, 2011 9:21 pm

PeterM wrote::( This one was already several times and even with the same text! Are you short of pictures?!!!
Regards,
Peter
Q4: Have some APOD pictures been run more than once?
A4: Yes. Many of our readers have been with us less than a year and are unaware of some really spectacular or important astronomy pictures. New information about old pictures is becoming available over the WWW. The text and links for rerun pictures will make use of this newly available information. So although the picture might be old, some of the text and links of each APOD will be new. Also, more web surfers have larger bandwidth connections, which allows us to post higher-resolution image files that can be transferred conveniently. Software to handle more sophisticated image file formats has also become more common, so the picture's size and/or format might be new. Lastly, rerunning APODs saves us time and helps us update our archive. In general, our rerun policy currently is to only rerun APODs more than one year old to keep the pictures relatively "new" to new APOD viewers. We will almost never rerun more than two pictures in any given week. So when you load the current APOD,it is still, most probably, a new picture.
Source: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap_faq.html
A closed mouth gathers no foot.

Wolf Kotenberg

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Wolf Kotenberg » Sun Aug 07, 2011 10:42 pm

Remarcable resemblance to Eta Carinae. Which is older ?

User avatar
orin stepanek
Plutopian
Posts: 8200
Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 3:41 pm
Location: Nebraska

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by orin stepanek » Sun Aug 07, 2011 11:23 pm

Orin

Smile today; tomorrow's another day!

Sam
Science Officer
Posts: 158
Joined: Thu Aug 19, 2010 8:39 pm

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Sam » Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:22 am

I discovered, from the hydrogen link, the origin of the phrase, "Oh the humanity!"

(I thought it was the from the unknown 20th century poet, Newman.)
"No avian society ever develops space travel because it's impossible to focus on calculus when you could be outside flying." -Randall Munroe

User avatar
Beyond
500 Gigaderps
Posts: 6889
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2009 11:09 am
Location: BEYONDER LAND

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Beyond » Mon Aug 08, 2011 3:55 am

Sam wrote:I discovered, from the hydrogen link, the origin of the phrase, "Oh the humanity!"

(I thought it was the from the unknown 20th century poet, Newman.)
WHEW!! For a minute there, i thought you meant Alfred E. Although it is spelled a little different.
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.

User avatar
NoelC
Creepy Spock
Posts: 876
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:30 am
Location: South Florida, USA; I just work in (cyber)space
Contact:

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by NoelC » Mon Aug 08, 2011 2:31 pm

Sam wrote:I discovered, from the hydrogen link, the origin of the phrase, "Oh the humanity!"
Back when TV news people weren't just heartless talking heads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46bBWBG9r2o

-Noel

Wolf kotenberg

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Wolf kotenberg » Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:26 pm

Is it not the case SN1987 is also9 doing this ?

User avatar
Chris Peterson
Abominable Snowman
Posts: 18113
Joined: Wed Jan 31, 2007 11:13 pm
Location: Guffey, Colorado, USA
Contact:

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Chris Peterson » Wed Aug 10, 2011 6:55 pm

Wolf kotenberg wrote:Is it not the case SN1987 is also9 doing this ?
There are some superficial similarities in parts of each structure, but there are also significant differences, and the remnants have very different scales. I'd be cautious reading too much into the similarities, given the very different processes at work.
Chris

*****************************************
Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
https://www.cloudbait.com

User avatar
NoelC
Creepy Spock
Posts: 876
Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2005 2:30 am
Location: South Florida, USA; I just work in (cyber)space
Contact:

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by NoelC » Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:22 pm

Wolf kotenberg wrote:Is it not the case SN1987 is also9 doing this ?
Tough to say...
Hubble Composite of SN1987A
Hubble Composite of SN1987A
SN1987A.jpg (40.72 KiB) Viewed 4977 times
-Noel

Merengues
Asternaut
Posts: 2
Joined: Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:14 pm

Re: APOD: MyCn18: An Hourglass Planetary Nebula (2011 Aug 07

Post by Merengues » Mon Aug 22, 2011 4:17 pm

Ann wrote:The only thing this planetary nebula reminds me of is an eye in space. I wonder who is looking...? :wink:
ha, you're right. it really resembles an eye. maybe it's superior creature looking at us?))

Post Reply