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.
2016 July 24
M2-9: Wings of a Butterfly Nebula
Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, NASA, ESA - Processing: Judy Schmidt
Explanation: Are stars better appreciated for their art after they die? Actually, stars usually create their most artistic displays
as they die. In the case of low-mass stars like our
Sun and
M2-9 pictured above, the stars transform themselves from normal
stars to
white dwarfs by casting off their outer gaseous envelopes. The expended gas frequently forms an impressive display called a
planetary nebula that fades gradually over thousands of years.
M2-9, a butterfly
planetary nebula 2100
light-years away shown in representative colors, has wings that tell a strange but
incomplete tale. In the center,
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.
Tomorrow's picture: broken nearby galaxies
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