Starship Asterisk*

and for your final exam, write down the force diagram of this machine. Sure looks like the Eta Carinae system. Going " boom " could take 13.8 billions years and still go strong

[quote="Ann"]

There is something ever so slightly similar about the Butterfly Nebula and [url=http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2009-25-aw-compass_large_web.jpg]the Homunculus Nebula surrounding Eta Carina[/url].

Ann[/quote]

Except that Eta Carina is going to go boom! It definitely looks hotter and more ticked off.
It would be pretty neat if we had a supernova in our own galaxy(but not in our own back yard) to look at.

[quote="alter-ego"][quote="FLPhotoCatcher"]Could scientists figure out how bright the central star is, based on the nebula?[/quote]
As pointed out [url=http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.5143]here[/url], the nebula emission characteristics identified the central star as necessarily being one of the hottest known. Recent imaging of the star has helped identify further central-star characteristics, including luminosity after extinction estimates derived from Hubble pictures using different filters. However as stated, given the observables, the luminosity and temperature remain uncertain.[/quote]

Thanks for that link, alter-ego! Very interesting.

There is something ever so slightly similar about the Butterfly Nebula and [url=http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2009-25-aw-compass_large_web.jpg]the Homunculus Nebula surrounding Eta Carina[/url].

Ann

What causes the dust pillars in a planetary nebula? Objects that were orbiting the dying star?

Yay I get to be the first to say it!!! Fly on Mothra!! :mrgreen: Congratz on another great apod. :clap: If your butterfly quota hasnNt been filled by this nebula hop a short way over to M6, the Butterfly Cluster! One of my personal favorites 8-)

Yes, and the fix is in, but apparently hasn't shown up yet.

They've written NGC 6902 instead of NGC 6302 by mistake. NGC 6902 is a very nice spiral galaxy in Sagittarius!

Also I'm wondering if the dusty central torus contains any organic molecules like PAH's or if PAH's have been found in other planetary nebulae?

[quote="Ted Walster"]Could someone explain just where all this dust comes from?[/quote]
Dust comes from stars! When an earlier generation star explodes at the end of its life, some of the products of its nuclear burning, having been blown out away from the remnant star, will clump together forming dust. That dust, plus a whole lot of leftover hydrogen and helium, becomes a part of the raw material for the next generation of stars and their planetary systems.

[quote="Ted Walster"]Why is all that dust in one general area when we have light years of empty space all over. [/quote]
In a word, gravity. Or rather two words, gravity and turbulence. Gas and dust gets blown around by radiation from other nearby stars, and gets pulled on by gravity from those stars too. This causes the gas and dust to begin to form regions of higher density. When the density gets high enough, the gas and dust will start to fall in on itself under the influence of its own gravity. If there's enough of it in one area, a new stellar system will form.

Rob

Could someone explain just where all this dust comes from? It looks like God spilled one of his dust cans by mistake while building that patch of the universe.

Why is all that dust in one general area when we have light years of empty space all over.

Please explain sometime

The bright clusters and nebulae of planet ...

....so bright, that in the best cases are almost if not totally invisible to the unaided eye even using a telescope.

[quote="FLPhotoCatcher"]Could scientists figure out how bright the central star is, based on the nebula?[/quote]
As pointed out [url=http://arxiv.org/abs/0909.5143]here[/url], the nebula emission characteristics identified the central star as necessarily being one of the hottest known. Recent imaging of the star has helped identify further central-star characteristics, including luminosity after extinction estimates derived from Hubble pictures using different filters. However as stated, given the observables, the luminosity and temperature remain uncertain.

Could scientists figure out how bright the central star is, based on the nebula?

[quote="Bay Area John"]I'm curious why it's called "ionized gas" when it's thousands (sometimes "millions") of degrees and glowing. Isn't that "plasma"?[/quote]
Ionized gas and [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_(physics)]plasma[/url] are the same thing. The glow is a result of [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_recombination]recombination[/url].

[b]Edit:[/b] The present-day cosmic microwave background is the red-shifted result of a plasma [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombination_(cosmology)]recombination[/url] from which the first neutral hydrogen atoms were formed after the Big Bang.

I'm curious why it's called "ionized gas" when it's thousands (sometimes "millions") of degrees and glowing. Isn't that "plasma"?

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap130607.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_130607.jpg[/img] [size=150]NGC 6302: The Butterfly Nebula[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] The bright clusters and nebulae of planet Earth's night sky are often named for [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120929.html]flowers[/url] or [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100425.html]insects[/url]. Though its wingspan covers over 3 light-years, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_6302]NGC 6302[/url] is no exception. With an estimated surface temperature of about 250,000 degrees C, the dying central star of this particular [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap040207.html]planetary nebula[/url] has become exceptionally hot, shining brightly in ultraviolet light but hidden from direct view by a dense torus of dust. This [url=http://internal.hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/f/]sharp and colorful close-up[/url] of the dying star's nebula was recorded in 2009 by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed during the final [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/STS-125]shuttle servicing mission[/url]. Cutting across a bright cavity of ionized gas, the dust [url=http://www.math.tamu.edu/~tkiffe/calc3/revolution3/revolution3.html]torus[/url] surrounding the central star is near the center of this view, almost edge-on to the line-of-sight. Molecular hydrogen [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005hris.conf..423M]has been detected[/url] in the hot star's dusty cosmic shroud. [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2008MNRAS.385..269M]NGC 6302[/url] lies about 4,000 light-years away in the [url=http://www.arachnology.be/Arachnology.html]arachnologically[/url] correct constellation of the Scorpion ([url=http://hawastsoc.org/deepsky/sco/index.html]Scorpius[/url]).

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