Hubble Catches Scattered Light from the Boomerang Nebula

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES

09.21.2009

Courtesy Photo

NASA

*Description*: This image of the Boomerang Nebula was taken in 1998 with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 instrument. Keith Taylor and Mike Scarrott called it the Boomerang Nebula in 1980 after observing it with a large ground-based telescope in Australia. Unable to see the detail that only Hubble can reveal, the astronomers saw merely a slight asymmetry in the nebula's lobes suggesting a curved shape like a boomerang. The high-resolution Hubble images indicate that 'the Bow Tie Nebula' would perhaps have been a better name. It shows faint arcs and ghostly filaments embedded within the diffuse gas of the nebula's smooth 'bow tie' lobes. The diffuse bow-tie shape of this nebula makes it quite different from other observed planetary nebulae, which normally have lobes that look more like 'bubbles' blown in the gas. However, the Boomerang Nebula is so young that it may not have had time to develop these structures. Why planetary nebulae have so many different shapes is still a mystery. The general bow-tie shape of the Boomerang appears to have been created by a very fierce 500,000 kilometer-per-hour wind blowing ultracold gas away from the dying central star. The star has been losing as much as one-thousandth of a solar mass of material per year for 1,500 years. This is 10 to 100 times more than in other similar objects. Technical facts about this news release: About the Object Object Name: Boomerang Nebula, ESO 172- 7 Object Description: Bipolar Reflection Nebula Position (J2000): R.A. 12h 44m 46s.10 Dec. -54° 31' 12" Constellation: Centaurus Distance: About 5,000 light-years (1,500 parsecs) Dimensions: This image is 1.1 arcminutes (1.6 light-years or 0.5 parsecs) across. The nebula has a semi-major axis of roughly 1 light-year (or 0.3 parsecs). About the Data Data Description: This image was created from HST calibration proposal: 10378: J.Biretta, R. Lucas and V. Platais (STScI). Instrument: ACS/WFC Exposure Date(s): January - May 2005 Exposure Time: 1.3 hours Filters: F606W("V"), [F606W("V") + POL0V], [F606W("V") + POL60V], [F606W("V") + POL120V] About the Image Image Credit: NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) Release Date: September 13, 2005 Orientation: Scattered Light from the Boomerang Nebula [ http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/2005/25/images/a/formats/compass_large_web.jpg ] What is Hubble Heritage? A monthly showcase of new and archival Hubble images. Go to the Heritage site. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope caught the Boomerang Nebula in images taken with the Advanced Camera for Surveys in early 2005. This reflecting cloud of dust and gas has two nearly symmetric lobes of matter that are being ejected from a central star. Each lobe of the nebula is nearly one light-year in length, making the total length of the nebula half as long as the distance from our Sun to our nearest neighbors- the Alpha Centauri stellar system, located roughly 4 light-years away. The Boomerang Nebula resides 5,000 light-years from Earth. Hubble's sharp view is able to resolve patterns and ripples in the nebula very close to the central star that are not visible from the ground. *News Release Number:*: STScI-2005-25b

NASA Identifier: SPD-HUBBLE-STScI-2005-25b

• Date Taken: 09.21.2009
• Date Posted: 10.10.2012 17:51
• Photo ID: 715309
• Resolution: 1536x1536
• Size: 262.77 KB
• Location: WASHINGTON, DC, US