Helix Nebula Enhanced
by Weston Westmoreland
Title
Helix Nebula Enhanced
Artist
Weston Westmoreland
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
The Helix Nebula: Unraveling at the Seams, Enhanced.
This object, called the Helix nebula NGC 7293, lies 650 light-years away, in the constellation of Aquarius. It is a typical planetary nebulae. Discovered in the 18th century, these cosmic works of art were erroneously named for their resemblance to gas-giant planets.
Planetary nebulae are actually the remains of stars like our sun. These stars spend most of their lives turning hydrogen into helium in massive runaway nuclear fusion reactions in their cores. In fact, this process of fusion provides all the light and heat that we get from our sun. Our sun will blossom into a planetary nebula when it dies in about five billion years.
When the hydrogen fuel for the fusion reaction runs out, the star turns to helium for a fuel source, burning it into an even heavier mix of carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. Eventually, the helium will also be exhausted, and the star dies, puffing off its outer gaseous layers and leaving behind the tiny, hot, dense core, called a white dwarf. The white dwarf is about the size of Earth, but has a mass very close to that of the original star.
The glow from planetary nebulae is particularly intriguing as it appears surprisingly similar across a broad swath of the spectrum, from ultraviolet to infrared. The Helix remains recognizable at any of these wavelengths, but the combination shown here highlights some subtle differences.
The intense ultraviolet radiation from the white dwarf heats up the expelled layers of gas, which shine brightly in the infrared. The ultraviolet light pouring out of this system, shows in blue, while the detailed infrared signature of the dust and gas shows in yellow. The white dwarf star itself is a tiny white pinprick right at the center of the nebula.
The brighter purple circle in the very center is the combined ultraviolet and infrared glow of a dusty disk circling the white dwarf (the disk itself is too small to be resolved). This dust was most likely kicked up by comets that survived the death of their star.
Before the star died, its comets, and possibly planets, would have orbited the star in an orderly fashion. When the star ran out of hydrogen to burn, and blew off its outer layers, the icy bodies and outer planets would have been tossed about and into each other, kicking up an ongoing cosmic dust storm. Any inner planets in the system would have burned up or been swallowed as their dying star expanded.
Original image and text by NASA/JPL-Caltech. Further image enhancements and post processing by Weston Westmoreland.
More Planetary & Deep Space Enhanced images at http://westonwestmoreland.com/collections/astronomy
You can learn more about what drives me in my blog:
http://inspiringthoughtsandimages.com/
Weston Westmoreland
Uploaded
June 12th, 2018
Statistics
Viewed 124 Times - Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/22/2024 at 4:16 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet