The Hubble Space Telescope releases images of the “Little Dumbbell Nebula” to mark the 34th anniversary of Hubble's work.
April 24, 1990 was the first day the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) was launched into space. To perform the task of recording images and helping to study various objects in space, including planets, stars, nebulae and other galaxies outside the Milky Way.
To celebrate the 34th anniversary of Hubble's launch, astronomers imaged the small Doppel Nebula, also known as galaxy M76, located 3,400 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus.
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M76 is a popular target for amateur astronomers. Classified as a planetary nebula, it is a cloud of glowing gas ejected from a dying red giant star that collapses into a dense white dwarf.
Planetary nebulae have nothing to do with planets. The name comes from 18th century astronomers who used low-resolution telescopes and believed that these types of objects resembled planets.
M76 consists of rings. There are two petals on either side of the ring opening. This appearance may be due to the fact that there is a binary companion star.
A star that collapsed into a white dwarf to form the Little Dumbbell Nebula is one of the hottest stellar remnants ever discovered. Its temperature reaches 138 thousand degrees Celsius, or 24 times the temperature of the surface of the sun. An extremely hot white dwarf star can be seen dotted in the center of the nebula.
The two petals we see in the picture are hot gases escaping. Along the star's rotation axis they are propelled by a tornado-like flow of material from a dying star. Which is rushing through space at a speed of 3.2 million kilometers per hour. Fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in 7 minutes.
These powerful stellar winds blow over cooler, slower-moving gas regions. Which is expelled during the first stage of the star's life cycle when it becomes a red giant. Strong ultraviolet rays cause the gas to glow. The red color comes from nitrogen. The blue color comes from oxygen.
Over the past 34 years, Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of more than 53,000 astronomical objects in ultraviolet light. The total data set is more than 184 terabytes, and since 1990 44,000 scientific papers have been published on Hubble's observations.
The space telescope is the most scientifically productive mission in NASA's history. Most of Hubble's discoveries were unexpected, such as supermassive black holes. Exoplanet atmospheres, gravitational lensing of dark matter, the presence of dark energy, and the formation of interstellar planets
Although NASA has the powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) that takes images in the infrared wavelength, it is designed to work with Hubble, not replace it.
Therefore, future studies of space will involve the interaction of two wavelengths of light. This could help expand pioneering research, such as exoplanet formation. Unusual supernova galaxy fundamentals and chemistry in the distant universe
Compiled from NASA
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