NASA releases stunning images of the Small Dumbbell Nebula from the Hubble Telescope on the occasion of the 34th anniversary of this space telescope.
The Little Dumbbell Nebula, or objects Messier 76 and NGC 650, is a planetary nebula located about 3,400 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Perseus.
The nebula has no connection. With the planet instead, it is caused by gas and dust emitted by red giant stars. A star dies before it collapses into a white dwarf. Images from Hubble revealed what appears to be a ring-like layer in the core. This may be due to the gravitational influence of stars orbiting together. But in this picture no other star appears. This may be due to it being swallowed up by the white dwarf's gravity.
White dwarfs appear as small bright white specks. The center of the image is surrounded by dust and gas that glow from intense ultraviolet radiation from the remains of dead stars. It is hotter than 138,000 degrees Celsius, or about 24 times hotter than the Sun's “surface” layer. The red color in the image represents hydrogen gas. Blue represents the oxygen gas that is flowing.
Astronomers believe that the beautiful gas dust on Messier 76 will remain visible for another 15,000 years before it finally fades away. This is a relatively short period of time compared to the age of the solar system (4.6 billion years) or the age of the entire universe (13.7 billion years).
The Hubble Space Telescope began its journey into space on April 24, 1990, and has completed more than 1.6 million missions to explore the universe with various objects. In the sky, nearly 53,000, and also cooperates with the next generation James Webb space telescopes and ground-based observatories. To bring successive new discoveries in the 34th year of the mission
Image: NASA, ESA, STScI
pointing to:
“Reader. Infuriatingly humble coffee enthusiast. Future teen idol. Tv nerd. Explorer. Organizer. Twitter aficionado. Evil music fanatic.”