Astronomers call the South Ring Nebula formed by at least 4 stars

The Southern Ring Nebula is the product of at least four stars.

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The South Ring Nebula is one of the first objects imaged by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The Southern Ring Nebula is a ring of gas and dust that was born from the deadly explosion of a star. According to new research, the southern ring nebula is the product of at least four stars. Previously, astronomers believed so The Southern Ring Nebula resulting from a binary or multiple star.

Studying images from the JWST, an international team of astronomers has discovered a previously unknown star in a bright cloud of gas and plasma. The presence of these stars explains the structures still sculpted as the nebula expands, the product of the collapse of the single star at the nebula’s center.

“We were surprised to find evidence of two or three companion stars that may have hastened their deaths, as well as another ‘observer’ star involved in the interaction,” said astrophysicist Orsola De Marco of Macquarie University in Australia. who guided the research.

Reported by sciencealertSunday (11/12/2022), Planetary nebulae like the South Ring Nebula form from the death of stars like the Sun. As the star begins to run out of fuel needed for nuclear fusion in its core, the star will expands to become hundreds of times larger, turning into a red giant.

Eventually, the star’s fuel runs out. The star’s outer material is ejected into space as its core collapses into a white dwarf.

The ejected matter continues to expand outward and is ionized by the radiation from the white dwarf which will continue to glow with residual heat for trillions of years. This is a planetary nebula. It is so named because, without the interference of other objects, its shape tends to be round, similar to a planet.

read also: South Ring Nebula, expansive cloud of gas around a dying star

The Southern Ring Nebula is about 2,460 light-years away. The nebula with the official name NGC 3132 is the death shroud of a star estimated to be three times the mass of the Sun when it was still alive. Now, the star is a small and dense white dwarf, about half the mass of the Sun, enclosed in a sphere the size of the Earth. The nebula is also surrounded by cold dust clouds which make it difficult to see.

“When we first saw the photos we knew we had to do something, we had to investigate!” DeMarco said.

“The community came together and from this randomly selected image of the nebula, we were able to discern a much more precise structure than before.”

From these observations, the scientists discovered that there was a second star near the center of the nebula. The star is already known, the binary companion of the white dwarf.

However, when the researchers made a three-dimensional reconstruction of the nebula, the scientists discovered a pair of structures that form when objects such as stars and black holes emit jets of plasma from their poles. This suggests that more stars exist. Scientists have concluded that there are at least four stars in the South Ring Nebula object.