The stellar debris left by the torment of a red giant star takes the form of a cosmic jug overflowing into a stunning new image.
Observation by the Gemini South Telescope, part of the Gemini International Observatory, shows a cloud of gas and dust emitted by a star as it swelled during its red giant phase and created a rare double-lobe planetary nebula. Located about 1,200 light-years away in the direction of the constellation Carina (The Keel), the nebula may also contain the remnants of a companion star to the red giant, which was dismembered long ago.
in statement Accompanying the image, Gemini Observatory International notes that the glowing orange structure is said to resemble an old English pottery drinking bowl, the Toby Jug, which takes the form of a seated person’s gnome with cartoonish features. As a result, this planetary nebula, officially named IC 2220, is now called the Toby Jug Nebula. But while its traditional jug name is pretty ugly and garish by design, this cool photo shows that the IC 2220 is anything but.
Related: Red Giant Stars: Facts, Definition, and Future of the Sun
At the heart of the lobed planetary nebula, Toby Jug, is the red giant star HR3126, which is only 50 million years old, much younger than the Sun’s age of 4.6 billion years. HR3126 reached its red giant phase much faster than the Sun because it has 5 times the mass of our star, which means it burns hydrogen much faster than the Sun. The dying red dwarf star continues to expel gas and glow material around it, which can take a variety of forms. This glowing envelope of gas is a planetary nebula.
In addition to its aesthetic value, this lobed planetary nebula is of great value to scientists studying stellar evolution. In fact, this specific end-of-life phase for red giant stars is short, and the planetary nebulae that form around them are short-lived, lasting only about 20,000 years, and therefore rarely seen.
Very rare bilobed or bipolar structures such as those in the planetary nebula illuminated by HR3126 may be the result of interactions between a red giant star and a stellar companion. However, previous observations of IC 2220 failed to find a companion star by HR3126.
This absence indicates to astronomers that the companion star that helped shape IC 2220’s hourglass shape has now been shredded, with its material now scattered throughout the nebula.
Despite their somewhat misleading name, planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. Instead, these huge clouds of gas and dust form when intermediate-mass stars, which are stars slightly less massive than the Sun and about 8 times the mass of our star, deplete the hydrogen in their cores.
Since hydrogen is the fuel for nuclear fusion, this ends the process that makes helium and stops the energy that provides the star’s external support against the internal force of its gravity. This causes the star’s core to collapse, but since fusion is still occurring in its outer layers, these layers work in the opposite direction, “exploding” and causing the star to expand up to 400 times its original size.
The sun itself will enter the red giant stage in about 5 billion years, bulging around the orbit of Mars, and engulfing the inner planets, including Earth.
