NGC 5189: An Unusually
Complex Planetary Nebula
from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day
Why is this nebula so
complex?
When a star like our Sun
is dying, it will cast off its outer layers, usually into a simple overall
shape. Sometimes this shape is a sphere, sometimes a double
lobe, and sometimes a ring or a helix.
In the case of planetary
nebula NGC 5189,
however, no such simple structure has emerged.
To help find out why,
the Earth-orbiting Hubble Space Telescope recently observed NGC
5189 in great
detail.
Previous findings indicated the existence of multiple epochs of material
outflow, including a recent one that created a bright but distorted torus running horizontally across image center.
Results appear
consistent with a hypothesis that the dying star is part of a binary
star system with
a precessing symmetry
axis.
Given this new
data, though, research is
sure to continue. NGC 5189 spans
about three light years and lies about 3,000 light years away toward the
southern constellation of the Fly (Musca).
