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Post Info TOPIC: M2-9, Twin Jet Nebula
Blobrana


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Minkowski 2-9
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NASA's SOFIA Captures Images of the Planetary Nebula M2-9
 
Researchers using NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have captured infrared images of the last exhalations of a dying sun-like star.
The object observed by SOFIA, planetary nebula Minkowski 2-9, or M2-9 for short, is seen in this three-colour composite image. The SOFIA observations were made at the mid-infrared wavelengths of 20, 24, and 37 microns. The 37-micron wavelength band detects the strongest emissions from the nebula and is impossible to observe from ground-based telescopes.
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Blobrana


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RE: M2-9, Twin Jet Nebula
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This is an image of the star, called M2-9, captured by the Gemini Observatory's North Telescope located on the 4200-metre-high summit of Mauna Kea in Hawaii. Astronomers used the telescope's newly upgraded ALTAIR adaptive optics system to reduce light distortion caused by the Earth's atmosphere.
The star has used up all the hydrogen fuel and has begun shedding its outer layers. It is in the process of changing into a white dwarf.

M2-9, the butterfly planetary nebula is 2100 light-years away in the constellation Ophiucus .


Colour composite (centre) of the planetary nebula M2-9 using Altair AO images in the following bands: K’ (green), K+H2=1-0 (violet) and Fell (orange). Field of view is 38.5 x 42.5 arcseconds with NIRI at f/14.

Most white dwarfs gradually cool. If, however, the mass of a such a star exceeds 1.4 solar masses – the so-called Chandrasekhar limit – the force of its own gravity make it collapse further and explode as a supernova.

-- Edited by Blobrana at 19:18, 2005-11-25

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Blobrana


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M2-9, a butterfly planetary nebula 2100 light-years away in the constellation Ophiucus is shown in representative colours.


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In this picture of M2-9, twin lobes of material emanate from a central, dying star. Astronomers have dubbed this object the "Twin Jet Nebula" because of the shape of the lobes.
If the nebula is sliced across the star, each side appears much like a pair of exhausts from jet engines. Indeed, because of the nebula's shape and the measured velocity of the gas, in excess of 200 miles per second, astronomers believe that the description as a super-super-sonic jet exhaust is quite apt.

In the centre, two stars orbit inside a gaseous disk 10 times the orbit of Pluto. The expelled envelope of the dying star breaks out from the disk creating the bipolar appearance.
Much remains unknown about the physical processes that cause planetary nebulae.

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