Webb captures the dying star's final 'performance' in fine detail
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI
Some stars save the best for last.
The faint star in the center of this scene has sent rings of gas and dust for thousands of years in all directions, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed for the first time that the star is shrouded in dust.
Two cameras aboard Webb captured the latest images of the planet’s nebula, cataloged as NGC 3132, and informally known as the Southern Ring Nebula. The distance is about 2,500 light years.
Webb will allow astronomers to unearth more specifics about planetary nebulae like these—clouds of gas and dust ejected by dying stars. Understanding which molecules are present, and where they are located across shells of gas and dust will help researchers refine their knowledge of these objects.
This observation shows the Southern Ring Nebula almost facing upwards, but if we could rotate it to view it from the edge, its three-dimensional shape would more clearly look like two bowls placed together at the bottom, away from each other with a large hole in the middle.
The two stars, locked in tight orbits, form the local landscape. Webb’s infrared images show new details in this complex system. The stars—and their light layers—stand out in the image from the Webb Near Infrared Camera (NIRCam) on the left, while the image from the Webb Central Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on the right shows for the first time that the second star is surrounded by dust. Brighter stars are in the early stages of their stellar evolution and may expel their own planetary nebula in the future.
Meanwhile, the brighter stars affect the appearance of the nebula. As the pair continued to orbit each other, they “stirred the pot” of gas and dust, causing an asymmetrical pattern.
Each shell represents an episode in which a fainter star loses some of its mass. The widest shell of gas towards the outer area of the image was issued earlier. The closest to the star is the most recent. Tracing these ejections allows researchers to look into the history of the system.
Observations taken with the NIRCam also revealed a very fine beam of light around the planetary nebula. Starlight from the central stars streams out where there are holes in the gas and dust—like sunlight through cracks in a cloud.
Because planetary nebulae exist for tens of thousands of years, observing them is like watching a movie in very slow motion. Each shell that the star exhales gives researchers the ability to precisely measure the gas and dust inside.
When a star ejects a shell of material, dust and molecules build up within it—changing the landscape even as the star continues to eject material. This dust will eventually enrich the area around it, developing into what is known as the interstellar medium. And because of its extremely long lifespan, dust may spread out into space over billions of years and coalesce into new stars or planets.
In thousands of years, this fine layer of gas and dust will dissipate into the surrounding space.
Image: Hubble looks at interstellar interactions
webbtelescope.org/news/first-images
Quote: Webb captures dying star’s final ‘show’ in great detail (2022, 12 July) retrieved 12 July 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-07-webb-captures-dying-star-fine.html
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