From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri May 30 2003 - 18:19:54 MDT
I know this is a natural object, but I like to imagine that scientists have
mis-identified an ETI phenomena. Hey, it floats my boat.
<A HREF="http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/1/2003/05/28/story001.html">http://www.rednova.com/news/stories/1/2003/05/28/story001.html>
May 28, 2003
Occasionally, though, an interplay of mysterious cosmic forces leaves objects
Now astronomers Dr. Raghvendra Sahai of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
They report their findings in a paper titled "A Very Young, Fast, Bipolar
A protoplanetary nebula forms when a red giant star ejects most of its outer
Subsequently, as the very hot core (six or more times hotter than the Sun)
The Red Rectangle, or HD44179, represents the crimson light from a
Coming up with a physical mechanism to produce these oddly shaped nebulas,
The jets are thought to operate for a very short period of time -- only a few
Finding direct evidence for these jet-like outflows has been generally very
Fortunately, the Hubble's imaging spectrograph provides a way to discriminate
The violent interaction of these outflows with the surrounding dense nebular
A small deviation, or shift, in the measured wavelength from the laboratory
After examining archival data on the Red Rectangle, Sahai and Sanchez
"Discovering this outflow in the famous, yet mysterious Red Rectangle is very
One theory about the formation of such fast outflows requires the central
A full understanding of this outflow and how it supports the intriguing shape
The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph is managed by NASA's Goddard Space
Written by Paul Morledge
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5
: Fri May 30 2003 - 18:30:55 MDT
Jet Propulsion Lab -- The great sculptor gravity ensures that larger, denser
objects in the universe -- like stars, planets and moons -- take on the
familiar spherical shape.
outside the round, those with more geometrically curious forms. One such
object, discovered in 1975, is the Red Rectangle.
Pasadena, Calif., and Dr. Carmen Sanchez Contreras of the California Institute of
Technology, also in Pasadena, have uncovered a physical mechanism that might
support this bizarre red rectangular structure.
Outflow at the Center of the Red Rectangle" at the 2003 summer meeting of the
American Astronomical Society, being held this week in Nashville, Tennessee.
layers, and is observable when dust within the nebula reflects light from the
central star.
gets further exposed, the cloud of ejected material becomes bathed with ionizing
ultraviolet light, which makes it glow. At this later stage these objects are
known as planetary nebulas.
protoplanetary nebula that lurks about 1,000 light years from Earth. Images taken with
the sharp eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope show that two bright diagonals
intersect its roughly rectangular shape; the diagonals appear connected by s
traight lines parallel to the short side of the rectangle.
and the Red Rectangle in particular, has been a serious challenge for
astronomers. Many recent studies of such objects with the Hubble have led to a new model
by Sahai in which very fast jet-like outflows carve out these diverse shapes.
hundred or so years -- during the protoplanetary phase, making studies of
protoplanetary nebulas very important for understanding the nature and origin of
the jets.
difficult, because they are compact, occasionally dormant, and difficult to see
against the bright nebular background.
these outflows by separating the nebular light into its constituent colors
(like a prism revealing the rainbow of colors in sunlight).
gas causes hydrogen atoms in the outflow (but not the general nebula) to emit
light at a specific wavelength (called H-alpha radiation) that is detected by
the imaging spectrograph.
value allows researchers to find out how fast, and in which direction (i.e.
towards or away from the observer), the material in the high-speed outflow moves.
Contreras have found evidence of H-alpha radiation emitted by a fast outflow
expanding with a speed of about 65 kilometers per second (40 miles per second). This
is the first time this inner, bipolar outflow has been seen in this object.
exciting because it provides us an unprecedented opportunity to study the
fast outflows believed to shape such objects," said Sahai. “The outflow is very
young and its innermost parts are only a few years old, so we will be able to
directly observe if, and how, it changes with time."
star to have a close companion object. Strong evidence exists that the central
star in the Red Rectangle has such a companion.
of the Red Rectangle will require further observations and detailed computer
modeling.
Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. The Hubble Space Telescope is a project
of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency.