Nebulae are locations the place stars are birthed. The make-up of a Nebula consists of gases, primarily hydrogen and helium. Though most nebulae belong to simply three varieties – spherical, elliptical and bipolar, a few of them is perhaps irregularly formed, a lot in order that they resemble objects on Earth. A few of the most peculiar shapes embody the Headphone nebula, the Coronary heart and Soul nebula and the Flying Ghost nebula. One of the vital simply recognizable nebulae is the Dolphin-Head nebula, which simply seems to be like a dolphin’s head floating in house.
As we speak’s NASA Astronomy Image of the Day is the Dolphin-Head nebula, positioned about 5000 light-years away from Earth in the direction of the constellation of Canis Main, also called the Large Canine. This weirdly fascinating nebula is about 70000 years outdated and spans nearly 60 light-years throughout, as per NASA. The Dolphin-Head nebula has been catalogued as Sh2-308.
On the middle of the nebula is the Wolf-Rayet star, which has over 20 occasions the mass of the Solar and is considered within the pre-supernova part of huge star evolution, in response to NASA. The gorgeous image was captured by Aleix Roig, an astrophotographer primarily based in Catalonia, Spain.
Tech used to seize the image
Roig captured this image utilizing a 3nm Ha filter in entrance of an ASI2600M cooled astronomy digicam and Takahashi FSQ-106EDX4 quadruplet refractor telescope. Roig shot the RGB picture utilizing the FSQ-106EDX4 telescope to realize pure colors within the starfield picture.
NASA’s description of the image
Which star created this bubble? It wasn’t the intense star on the bubble’s proper. And it additionally wasn’t an enormous house dolphin. It was the star within the blue nebula’s middle, a famously energetic Wolf-Rayet star. Wolf-Rayet stars normally have over 20 occasions the mass of our Solar and expel quick particle winds that may create iconic trying nebulas.
On this case, the ensuing star bubble spans over 60 mild years, is about 70,000 years outdated, and occurs to seem like the pinnacle of a dolphin. Named Sh2-308 and dubbed the Dolphin-Head Nebula, the gasoline ball lies about 5,000 mild years away and covers as a lot sky as the total moon — though it’s a lot dimmer. The close by red-tinged clouds on the left of the featured picture might owe their glow and form to energetic mild emitted from the identical Wolf-Rayet star.
