Astronomy Picture of the Day 12-14-02

NASA ^ | 12-14-02 | Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell

[petuniasevan]

Astronomy Picture of the Day

Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.

2002 December 14

IC 418: The Spirograph Nebula
Credit: R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team (STScI / AURA), NASA

Explanation: What is creating the strange texture of IC 418? Dubbed the Spirograph Nebula for its resemblance to drawings from a cyclical drawing tool, planetary nebula IC 418 shows patterns that are not well understood. Perhaps they are related to chaotic winds from the variable central star, which changes brightness unpredictably in just a few hours. By contrast, evidence indicates that only a few million years ago, IC 418 was probably a well-understood star similar to our Sun. Only a few thousand years ago, IC 418 was probably a common red giant star. Since running out of nuclear fuel, though, the outer envelope has begun expanding outward leaving a hot remnant core destined to become a white-dwarf star, visible in the image center. The light from the central core excites surrounding atoms in the nebula causing them to glow. IC 418 lies about 2000 light-years away and spans 0.3 light-years across. This false-color image taken from the Hubble Space Telescope reveals the unusual details.

[petuniasevan]

Object Name:	IC 418 • The “Spirograph” Nebula
Object Description:	Planetary Nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy
Position (J2000):	R.A. 05h 27m 28.2s Dec. -12° 41' 50"
Constellation:	Lepus
Distance:	About 2000 light-years
Scale:	The nebula is about 0.2 light-years or 13,000 AU (18 arcseconds) in diameter.

[petuniasevan]

[MozartLover]

bump

[trussell]

Another beautiful picture!! Thank you petuniasevan!!

[xJones]

Another beautiful picture!! Thank you petuniasevan!!

I'll second that motion! Beautiful.

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Fantastic! Thanks for the ping!

[NewCenturions]

It's gorgeous!

[redhead]

Cool! Did you try that Spirograph Link?

[headsonpikes]

"...a well-understood star similar to our sun..."

Gee, thanks, Petunia, that's a lovely picture...gulp!

;^)

[headsonpikes]

BTW, I guess we'd be out in the orangey bits of the cloud, eh? ;^)

[Joan912]

I don't understand a word, but it's beautiful. :)

[firewalk]

Thank you

[RightWhale]

That will be us in a few more years. Those who think spending tax dollars on the space program and exploring and developing outer space is a waste ought to think about that.

[Soaring Feather]

Planetary Nebula in the Milky Way Galaxy

WOW ooooooh WOW
Fantastic!!
Oh thank you!

[exmoor]

Thats not Hil low ree in the nude is it ????????

[petuniasevan]

I don't understand a word, but it's beautiful

That's one of the nice things about the clickable links and other resources on the 'Net. If you don't know a term or phrase, just research it or ask me or ask a regular poster to this thread. We're glad to help!

For instance: "Nebula": Latin for "mist"; in astronomy it refers to an area of dust and/or gas. They glow by ionizing radiation (like a fluorescent light) from associated stars, or by reflected starlight, or appear dark.