Buzz
Hubble recently refocused on NGC 6302, known as the Butterfly Nebula, capturing it across a broader range of light wavelengths. This new perspective has allowed scientists to gain deeper insights into the intricate processes shaping its vibrant gas wings. The nebula's formation is linked to the dying star at its core, which has been shedding gas layers periodically for thousands of years.
Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT)Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Hubble Space Telescope continues to amaze with breathtaking images and awe-inspiring space photography. NASA has recently shared fresh Hubble images of two young planetary nebulas—expanding gas shells formed by dying stars casting off their outer layers. These new visuals offer valuable insights into the tumultuous final stages of stellar life.
Captured with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3, multi-wavelength images suggest that the Butterfly Nebula (NGC 6302) and another nebula resembling a brightly-colored jewel bug (NGC 7027) may be part of binary star systems. These images have provided astronomers with a clearer view of how these systems are rapidly disintegrating—at least in the context of space-time.
Joel Kastner from Rochester Institute of Technology, New York, led the research in which scientists traced the shock wave histories of the nebulae. Their findings suggest that two stars are—or once were—orbiting each other at the heart of each nebula, explaining the pinched central structure. These recent changes in stellar output might even signal a star merging with its companion.
"When I reviewed the Hubble archive and realized no one had examined these nebulas with Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 across its full spectrum, I was shocked," Kastner remarked in a press statement. "These new multi-wavelength Hubble observations offer the most detailed view yet of these extraordinary nebulas. As I was downloading the resulting images, I felt like a kid in a candy store."
Astronomers believe that a two-star nebula may form when one of the stars in a binary system is shedding mass, according to NASA. The interaction between the stars creates a gas disk, which becomes the source of the outflowing material, forming shapes like the wings of a butterfly or the body of a jewel bug.
NGC 7027, also known as the 'Jewel Bug' Nebula, was first identified by Hubble in 1998. These new near-ultraviolet observations will help scientists better understand how much dust obscures the central star and determine its true temperature.
Space Telescope Science Institute/NASA, ESA, and J. Kastner (RIT)When the smaller star merges with its companion, jets of material can erupt and oscillate, which is believed to be occurring in the Butterfly Nebula. The way iron emissions—gas expelled at high velocity by a star and captured through the Hubble camera filter—appear along opposing, off-center directions suggests the source is wobbling over time, "like a spinning top that's about to fall," explains Kastner. "This is another sign of a disk's presence, which funnels the flow, and likely a binary partner."
The so-called 'jewel bug' had been expelling its mass in a regular spherical pattern for centuries, but recently, it began emitting a new cloverleaf-shaped pattern. Kastner explained that something 'went haywire' at the core. Based on its iron emission pattern, researchers hypothesize that the red giant star consumed its companion.
"The suspected companion stars in NGC 6302 and NGC 7027 haven't been directly observed, as they are either adjacent to, or may have already been engulfed by, larger red giant stars—massive stars hundreds to thousands of times brighter than the Sun," said Bruce Balick of the University of Washington in Seattle in a press statement. "The theory of stars merging seems to offer the most straightforward and compelling explanation for the features seen in the most active and symmetrical planetary nebulae. It's a unifying concept that stands unmatched so far."
Hubble left Earth on April 24, 1990, and is expected to continue operating through the 2020s, thanks in part to its space shuttle servicing missions, which have enabled the telescope to undergo five upgrades.
