HEIC: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

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bystander
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HEIC: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

Post by bystander » Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:33 pm

HD 44179: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before
Hubble European Picture of the Week - potw1007a - 07 June 2010

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The star HD 44179 is surrounded by an extraordinary structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquired its moniker because of its shape and its apparent colour when seen in early images from Earth. This strikingly detailed new Hubble image reveals how, when seen from space, the nebula, rather than being rectangular, is shaped like an X with additional complex structures of spaced lines of glowing gas, a little like the rungs of a ladder. The star at the centre is similar to the Sun, but at the end of its lifetime, pumping out gas and other material to make the nebula, and giving it the distinctive shape. It also appears that the star is a close binary that is surrounded by a dense torus of dust — both of which may help to explain the very curious shape. Precisely how the central engine of this remarkable and unique object spun the gossamer threads of nebulosity remains mysterious. It is likely that precessing jets of material played a role.

The Red Rectangle is an unusual example of what is known as a proto-planetary nebula. These are old stars, on their way to becoming planetary nebulae. Once the expulsion of mass is complete a very hot white dwarf star will remain and its brilliant ultraviolet radiation will cause the surrounding gas to glow. The Red Rectangle is found about 2 300 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn).

The High Resolution Channel of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys captured this view of HD 44179 and the surrounding Red Rectangle nebula — the sharpest view so far. Red light from glowing Hydrogen was captured through the F658N filter and coloured red. Orange-red light over a wider range of wavelengths through a F625W filter was coloured blue.

The field of view is about 25 by 20 arcseconds.

Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble

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geckzilla
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Re: ESA: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

Post by geckzilla » Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:39 pm

Times like this I wish I could grab a photo and rotate its contents around 3d axes.
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Re: ESA: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

Post by rstevenson » Mon Jun 07, 2010 1:58 pm

I assume the central double vertical lines and the central single horizontal line are aberrations added by the optical setup. Are there any other extraneous lines or shapes in the image? (I'm just trying to get as clear an idea as possible as to what is physically out there and what is simply an artifact of the process used to get the picture.)

Rob

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Re: ESA: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

Post by Chris Peterson » Mon Jun 07, 2010 2:06 pm

rstevenson wrote:I assume the central double vertical lines and the central single horizontal line are aberrations added by the optical setup. Are there any other extraneous lines or shapes in the image? (I'm just trying to get as clear an idea as possible as to what is physically out there and what is simply an artifact of the process used to get the picture.)
The horizontal and vertical lines coming off the central star are clearly diffraction spikes. There seems to be some scatter off the optics as well, seen as a sort of starburst effect around the star, most obvious above it. Otherwise, I don't think anything else could be described as an imaging artifact.

I imagine that we are looking at a pair of cones from the side, but like geckzilla says, it would be nice to be able to see this from a different angle.
Chris

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Re: ESA: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

Post by bystander » Mon Jun 07, 2010 2:10 pm

It's not just an aberration. That's what the Red Rectangle Nebula looks like.

APOD: Rungs of the Red Rectangle (2004 May 13)

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Re: ESA: The Unique Red Rectangle: sharper than ever before

Post by Ann » Tue Jun 08, 2010 11:08 am

False color. :evil: But a very nice image all the same. :D I agree with others that it would be so much fun to be able to rotate the image and find out this proto-planetary nebula's true geometry!

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