Amazing things out there in space!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Rectangle_Nebula
Photo in the News: "Red Square" Nebula's Secrets Revealed
QUOTE
Infrared cameras at two observatories recently took this composite image of the Red Square Nebula, a rare cloud of dust and gas so symmetrical that a scientist deemed it "almost perfect."
Few other such nebula have been detected—among them the Red Rectangle Nebula in the constellation Monoceros—but what causes the phenomena has been poorly understood.
Scientists say the new image shows the Red Square to be a bipolar nebula, with stellar winds blowing cone-shaped jets away from its hot central star.
The cloud's extreme symmetry also suggests that the star, known as MWC 922, is in a relatively calm corner of space, with little turbulence to disturb the formation.
Similar forces are probably what shaped the Red Rectangle, astronomers say, and there may be many more of these formations in space than had previously been believed.
Few other such nebula have been detected—among them the Red Rectangle Nebula in the constellation Monoceros—but what causes the phenomena has been poorly understood.
Scientists say the new image shows the Red Square to be a bipolar nebula, with stellar winds blowing cone-shaped jets away from its hot central star.
The cloud's extreme symmetry also suggests that the star, known as MWC 922, is in a relatively calm corner of space, with little turbulence to disturb the formation.
Similar forces are probably what shaped the Red Rectangle, astronomers say, and there may be many more of these formations in space than had previously been believed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23691935/
The gas and dust in the Red Rectangle Nebula has a bizarre ladder-like structure.
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMHBNGHZTD_FeatureWeek_0.html
printer friendly page
HD 44179 Nebula
The HD 44179 nebula, known as the 'Red Rectangle.'
The remarkable Red Rectangle: A Stairway to Heaven?
11 May 2004
Astronomers may not have observed the fabled 'Stairway to Heaven,' but they have photographed something almost as intriguing: ladder-like structures surrounding a dying star.
QUOTE
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/Pr_6_2004_h_en.html
Another remarkable feature of the Red Rectangle, visible only with the superb resolution of the Hubble telescope, is the dark band passing across the central star. This is the shadow of a dense disc of dust that surrounds the star and obscures it from direct view. The light we see streams out along the axis of the disc, and is scattered towards us by dust particles. Astronomers have found that the central star is actually a close pair of stars orbiting each other with a period of about 10.5 months. Interactions between these stars have probably caused the ejection of the thick dust disc that obscures our view of the binary. The disc then funnels subsequent dust and gas outflows out along its axis, forming the bizarre bi-conical structure we see as the rung of the Red Rectangle. The reasons for these fresh periodic ejections of more gas and dust remain unknown.
Another remarkable feature of the Red Rectangle, visible only with the superb resolution of the Hubble telescope, is the dark band passing across the central star. This is the shadow of a dense disc of dust that surrounds the star and obscures it from direct view. The light we see streams out along the axis of the disc, and is scattered towards us by dust particles. Astronomers have found that the central star is actually a close pair of stars orbiting each other with a period of about 10.5 months. Interactions between these stars have probably caused the ejection of the thick dust disc that obscures our view of the binary. The disc then funnels subsequent dust and gas outflows out along its axis, forming the bizarre bi-conical structure we see as the rung of the Red Rectangle. The reasons for these fresh periodic ejections of more gas and dust remain unknown.
