Planetary Nebula Mz3: The Ant Nebula
Credit: R. Sahai (JPL) et al., Hubble Heritage Team, ESA, NASA Explanation: Why isn't this ant a big sphere?
Planetary nebula Mz3 is being cast off by a star similar to our
Sun that is, surely, round. Why then would the gas that is
streaming away create an
ant-shaped nebula that is distinctly not round?
Clues might include the high 1000-kilometer per second speed of the expelled gas, the
light-year long length of the structure, and the
magnetism of the star
visible above at the nebula's center. One possible answer is that
Mz3 is hiding a second, dimmer star that
orbits close in to the bright star.
We have a new blogad (YEAH!) so please click thru and check out what they're trying to inform you about. That is how we make the pennies. You can also make a donation through the PayPal button to the right to help us out, and if you are thinking of buying anything from Amazon, just using one of those links to the right gets us a couple pennies a transaction.
.jpg)