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We're used to seeing spiral galaxies in deep space, but other types of outer-space spirals are positively spooky. Astronomers say that this whirligig, more than 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus, has been created by material spewing out from a binary-star system like water from a lawn sprinkler.
The Hubble Space Telescope spotted the swirl around LL Pegasi, also known as AFGL 3068, several years ago. There's a thin spiral pattern of star stuff winding around the central star, which is hidden from view by thick dust. Observations from Hubble as well as the Keck II telescope in Hawaii indicate that LL Pegasi actually consists of two stars in a tight orbit around each other. Astronomers theorized that one of the stars was spewing material outward in the course of making its rounds.
When the astronomers calculated what kind of orbit would produce the spiral pattern, they came up with an estimate of 800 years per orbit — which turned out to be a close match for the time they think it takes the decomposing star to make one circuit.
The spiral of dust, designated IRAS 23166+1655, is known as a pre-planetary nebula. That's not because the nebula is about to form infant planets, but because the phenomenon is seen as the prelude to the star system's death. When a sunlike star nears the end of its life, it puffs away its outer layers of gas and dust, creating beautiful shells in the process. "IRAS 23166+1655 is just starting this process, and the central star has yet to emerge from the cocoon of enveloping dust," the European Space Agency's Hubble team says in Monday's "Picture of the Week" advisory.
Such objects are known as "planetary nebulas" because when English astronomer William Herschel spotted them in the late 18th century, he compared their roundish shape to that of a planet. That's a shape he knew from experience, as the discoverer of Uranus.
The weirdly regular spiral of IRAS 23166+1655 may not be all that similar to a planet's shape, but it does look like a few other pinwheels that have been seen in outer space. One example is WR 104, the so-called "Death Star" that's 8,000 light-years from Earth and just might blow up one of these days. (But don't worry: Astronomers say it won't kill us.)
Peter Tuthill / Univ. of Sydney
A near-infrared image from the Keck telescope shows the pinwheel shape created by the WR 104 star system.
The other spiral that comes to mind is the unidentified flying object that was sighted over Norway last December. Some observers wondered if the glowing spiral shape was a warning signal from visiting aliens, or even a tryout for a holographic sky-hoax system dubbed Project Bluebeam. But the spiral pattern turned out to be the result of rocket fuel spewing from a wayward Russian booster.
Dagfinn Rap via Space.com
Norwegians had front-row seats for last December's space spiral and green streak.
Compared to a Death Star and a runaway Russian missile, a pre-planetary nebula in Pegasus sounds positively charming — and sure enough, the celestial spiral is going viral. Check out these other reports:
- Bad Astronomy: Awesome death spiral of a bizarre star
- Discovery News: Hubble spots ghostly space spiral
- Duluth News-Tribune's Astro Bob: This can't be real, but it is
- Universe Today: Hubble spies an amazing cosmic spiral
The pinwheel phenomenon in Pegasus is discussed in a paper presented at the International Astronomical Union meeting in 2006, titled "A Binary-Induced Pinwheel Outflow from the Extreme Carbon Star, AFGL 3068." First author is Mark Morris of the University of California at Los Angeles. Other authors include Raghvendra Sahai, Keith Matthews, Judy Cheng, Jessica Lu, Mark Claussen and Carmen Sanchez-Contreras.
Join the Cosmic Log corps by signing up as my Facebook friend or hooking up on Twitter. And if you really want to be friendly, ask me about "The Case for Pluto."
Leave a Comment:
are you sure IRAS 23166+1655 is not a peter max poster?...if you stare at it too long you will see the Norway image all over the place..LL Pegasi may just be a new desktop for one of the machines around here!...at least till ya post another cool pic next week!
You're so-o-o-o right...one very cool pic...it should be offered as a mural...a full wall size...man, it would seem like you could float right out into space!!!!
The Hubble I hope will be enshrined on earth some day. Daily it adds to our (Earth's) understanding of the Universe. And to think that fifty years ago I was so proud of my Edmond Scientific 4" reflector that I worked and saved for a summer to buy. I am feeling the same way about Hubble's replacement.
don't underestimate that 4" telescope man, it's thanks to these babies we have the big boys. But I too wish we could salvage the Hubble rather than just let it crash and burn (or burn, crash, and splash - as the case may be). ;-P
Our universe will never stop to amaze us... Beautiful picture and greater explanation (no need for myths, just science)
I just adore the Hubble! This magnificent invention has brought so much beauty and wonder to countless millions of people. The way the world is now, we all need as much beauty and wonder as we can get. Long live Hubble, and all of its offspring, unto countless generations!
The respect shown here for the Hubble space telescope thrills me. I always thought most folks enjoyed the images it has brought to us but I had no idea the amount of passion people have for both the picture and the telescope that has brought them to us- the Hubble. The future is what we make it, so let's make it a good one and continue to support our planets space endeavors.
The Hubble ST has helped us begin to answer so many questions about our cosmos that it is stunning in scope (pun intended). Everything from it's Deep Field observations and helping narrow down the Hubble Constant (which was one of it's main, early objectives) to the impacts on Jupiter, and the answers just keep coming in. Us lowly civilians get the benefit of the stunning, high definition pics that we are, now, so familiar with that we take it as a matter of course. The fact that NASA has seen fit to refit/refurbish the Hubble twice is a testament to it's longevity as a scientific platform and the science that it as brought us. I love the pictures, but have also closely followed the science that has gone along with them, all of which would have been moot without the Hubble to begin with.
Long may it Live and Prosper!!
Here Here! The deep field images are some of my favorites. It can be extremely enjoyable to ponder the fact that when you look through the telescope and see these things so extremely far away you are looking backwards in time. Traveling through time may or may not be possible but looking backwards in time is clearly possible. If you look far enough you can see the afterglow of the big bang. It makes me wonder, If you could track a single galaxy from it's formation to it's current position in the universe (somehow) could you in essence see it's entire evolution in photograph form? It's a flawed hypothesis i know but it's fun to think about.
Mob, they are essentially trying to do that by looking at how the galaxies are from far to near and the changes within them at the various points in the time line, there are problems with that of course since we Don't get to see the development of a single galaxy, but they have approximated it fairly well. The coalescing of galaxies forming larger ones is the main difference, we can see some of that happening, but not the earliest ones, at least, not as clearly as the newer, larger galaxies we see colliding in the nearer billions of years.
Hubble has been one of the absolute coolest things to come down the pike.....ever, imo. I remember how bummed I was when they 1st tried it out & discovered that the lense was flawed--recall those very first images? Smearsville, man. Then, after the superb fix job, those perfect images started coming in--wow, was I blown away. Pillars of Creation? Friggin' awesome. Horsehead Nebula? Cat's Eye Nebula? And yes, those deep field shots are true wonders--as I recall, Hubble was aimed at a 1 square inch area of space that didn't really appear to have many stars & then they just left the aperture open for a week...or something like that...and the pic that came back shows literally thousands of galaxies!!! That is such a trip...truly. They should keep it up there & allow it to continue--why not? The Hubble has been a magnificent success, imo.
WOW!!! it must be a wormhole built by a super advanced civilization, i mean 3,000 light-years across!!! their spaceships must be enormous!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!
pretty dang cool!! think about what we could see just 50 years back! canals on Mars and such! wish i could be around in another 50 to see whats out there even more! maybe the border of The Universe even! well, thatd be kinda scary...at least today we can glimps this kinda cool stuff!! go Hubble!!!
Hubble has been a tremendous tool for peering into the cosmos. The Deep Field is one of the most impressive photos ever taken, with nearly every object in it a galaxy.
With the EISCAT facility close to that location in Norway (related to HAARP) I wouldn't be surprised if the glowing spiral pattern had something to do with it. Rocket trails I've seen (from Vandenberg AFB) look random and irregular as the craft goes through various atmospheric layers with differing wind shear.
The rocket that made that pattern seen in Norway and elsewhere, went into a fast spiral spewing it's fuel, which is why the pattern looks like that, similar to a very fast sprinkler going with only one nozzle. It made a great spiral which was then backlit by the sun.
Rich--aside from just sheer amazement, seeing all those galaxies in the Deep Field shot really gives one something to ponder--especially when you realize that the shot was taken of so small a section of space and of no particular area of space.
Hmmmmm....let's see, I've heard estimates that our particular Universe is about 35 billion light years wide...now how many galaxies would that hold? And how many stars per Galaxy? Etc., etc. But if I contemplate that too hard, smoke comes out my ears....
Hubble has been one of the absolute coolest things to come down the pike.....ever, imo. I remember how bummed I was when they 1st tried out & discovered that the lense was flawed--recall those very first images? Smearsville, man. Then, after the superb fix job, those perfect images started coming in--wow, was I blown away. Pillars of Creation? Friggin' awesome. Horsehead Nebula? Cat's Eye Nebula? And yes, those deep field shots are true wonders--as I recall, Hubble was aimed at a 1 square inch area of space that didn't really appear to have many stars & then they just left the aperture open for a week...or something like that...and the pic that came back shows literally thousands of galaxies!!! That is such a trip...truly. The Hubble has been a magnificent success, imo.
How can a galaxy be so dim? It's the most peculiar thing I've seen. I mean crazy looking planetary
nebulas are very odd but something on the scale of a galaxy looking like that really is screwball.
That is not at all the scale of a galaxy, that is the gas coming off from a single star that is being influenced by another star very close to it. It is a Binary Star system where one star is shedding gas quickly and another, orbiting it, changes the shape of the cloud to a spiral form.
BIG Difference!!
I see. I didn't read the caption close enough. and apparently not at all. My mistake.
I wonder what the velocity of the expanding spirals are.
This subject indeed is perplexing, and it will challenge the most intellectual, degreed individuals on this planet. But, to those of us that have had true experiences involving other life forms introducing themself, as I ;and two other people have experiened together, do not need the conformation of Quantum Scientists to prove that we as a race of animal, known as humans, are the only living speices in our vast solar systems.