This is SH2-188 - otherwise known as the Dolphin Nebula - a planetary nebula that"s located approximately 850 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cassiopeia A.
In the past, SH2-188 was thought to be the remnant of a supernova explosion that appeared in 1965 (it took the light 850 years to reach us), but the nebula was later confirmed to be an asymmetrical planetary nebula with a crescent-like shape. Most planetary nebulae simply have symmetrical shells that expand outwards, forming something similar to a shell around the dying star.
It"s thought that this nebula gets its interesting shape as a result of its travels. At the moment, it is traveling much faster than usual whilst interacting with the interstellar medium. The sun-like star responsible for expelling all of the gases into space thought to be moving at about 125 km/sec, which is almost 280,000 mph! As you can see, there is a bright southeastern arc in this image, which is the bow shock. The northwestern structure is a trailing tail of gases.
Sources & Further Reading: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-112913-the-dolphin-nebula/
Image Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/Coelum
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Saturday, November 30, 2013
Astronomy Picture of the Day: 11/30/13 - The Dolphin Nebula
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Cassiopeia A; The Star That Flipped Inside Out
So we"ve seen stars that are literally the size of our solar system, stars that are a brilliant blueish-white color that live short lives and blowup brilliantly, vampire stars that stay young by siphoning material off of their companion, and now we"ve seen a star that turned inside out. Yes... you read that right. Astronomers have found a star that literally turned inside out when it was in its final throws of life. You couldn"t - pardon the french - make this shit up. And lets be honest.. why would you want to? The universe in general tends to surprise us with its abnormalities, and there is always something else to learn from each celestial object we point our telescopes toward.
To find out how this is possible, see: http://www.fromquarkstoquasars.com/the-end-of-cassiopeia-as-life/
Image Credit: NASA/CXC