Astronomers managed to photograph the jug structure that marked the end of life red giant star. Introducing the Cosmic Jug!
A pair of glowing circles of gas and dust marking the death of an ancient red giant star captured by a camera on the Gemini South telescope. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA. Image processing: TA Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Rodriguez (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)
Toby’s Old Jug
Astronomers photographed a nebula with a strange structure resembling an old jug in England with the Gemini South telescope. This nebula is blanket nebula which we know as the Toby Jug Nebula or Toby Jug Nebula. The Toby jug or often called Filipot is a clay jug in the shape of a sitting person.
The name Toby for this jug comes from the names Sir Toby Belch and Uncle Toby, characters in two of Shakespeare’s works. But British people believe that this name comes from the nickname of Henry Elwes, who was famous for drinking 2000 gallons of beer without eating. His nickname is Toby Filipot!
This jug is not made of clay but of gas and dust and this structure reflects the light received from the star.
Jugs in the Universe
The Toby Jug Nebula or officially IC 2220, is located at a distance of 1200 light years from Earth in the Carina Constellation. Interestingly, this nebula has a double circle or bipolar cloud of gas and dust illuminated by the red giant star HR3126 at the center of the nebula. The symmetric structure unique to red giant stars is in the process of aging and will evolve into a planetary nebula.
It is this uniqueness that makes the Toby Jug nebula an appropriate case for studying stellar evolution. However, it is not easy for astronomers to study the final stages of red giant stars because the period the stars are in this stage is very short. In addition, astronomers suspect that the formation of structures around stars in such a short time is very rare.
This discovery is of course very important because astronomers can study in detail the evolution and especially the final stages of small and medium mass stars. Moreover, from the results of observations, the structure of gas and dust can form in a short period when the star is in the red giant stage.
HR3126 Stellar Evolution
The star HR3126 is a red giant star or a star that is in the final stage of its evolution. In short, HR3126 is an old star that will soon die and this star will soon enter the next stage of evolution, namely the planetary nebula. It is important to remember that on an astronomical scale it is short, but on the scale of human life, the time is still quite long.
When a star has burned all the hydrogen in its center into helium, the star will grow bigger. More precisely, the atmosphere begins to expand until finally the star sheds its outer layers. This loose envelope of material will be ejected into areas near the star and form structures of gas and dust that reflect light from the star.
From observations of infrared light, astronomers discovered that the chemical component that reflects starlight is silica dioxide.
According to astronomers, bipolar cosmic structures such as those seen in the Toby Jug Nebula were formed from collisions between red giant stars and their companion stars. However, so far astronomers have not succeeded in finding HR3126’s companion star.
In the latest observations, astronomers discovered a small disk of material around HR3126. They suspect this disk of material came from the companion star HR3126 which was torn apart due to interactions with the red giant. This collision appears to have triggered the formation of a bipolar structure around the Toby Kendi nebula.
Cool Facts
The age of the star HR3126 is much younger than the Sun. It is only 50 million years old while the Sun is now 4.6 billion years old. However, the star HR3126 is five times more massive than the Sun. Because of this, HR3126 burns hydrogen faster than the Sun, so this star also evolves more quickly to the red giant stage.
Source: This article is a re-publication developed from Space Scoop Universe Awareness Indonesian edition. The Indonesian edition of Space Scoop was translated by Langitselatan.
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2023-09-16 03:49:38
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