Necklace Nebula

Necklace Nebula
Emission nebula
Planetary nebula
Hubble image of the Necklace Nebula, displaying the hydrogen (blue), oxygen (green), and nitrogen (red) emission.[1]
Observation data: J2000 epoch
Right ascension19h 43m 59.51104s[2]
Declination+17° 09′ 00.9579″[2]
Distance15.0 ± 3.6 kly (4.6 ± 1.1 kpc)[3] pc
Apparent diameter0.35[4]
ConstellationSagitta
Physical characteristics
Radius4.4 ly (1.35 pc)[3] pc
DesignationsIRAS 19417+1701, IPHASXJ194359.5+170901, PN G054.2-03.4[5]
See also: Lists of nebulae

The Necklace Nebula (PN G054.2-03.4) is a 19-trillion-kilometre-wide (2.0 light-year-wide)[1] planetary nebula located about 15,000 light-years away in the northern constellation Sagitta. It was discovered in 2005 from the Isaac Newton Telescope Photometric H-alpha Survey (IPHAS), a ground-based H-alpha planetary nebula study of the North Galactic Plane.[6]

The Necklace Nebula is the exploded aftermath of a giant star that came too close to its Sun-like binary companion. The two stars that produced the Necklace Nebula are in a relatively small orbit about each other. They have a period of 1.2 days and a separation on the order of 5 times the radius of the Sun.

About 10,000 years ago one of the aging stars ballooned to the point where it engulfed its companion star. The smaller star continued orbiting inside its larger companion, increasing the giant's rotation rate.

The bloated companion star spun so fast that a large part of its gaseous envelope expanded into space. Due to centrifugal force, most of the gas escaped along the star's equator, producing a ring. The embedded bright knots are dense gas clumps in the ring.[1]

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Hubble Offers a Dazzling 'Necklace', NASA press release dated August 11, 2011.This article incorporates public domain text from this US government website.
  2. ^ a b Brown, A. G. A.; et al. (Gaia collaboration) (August 2018). "Gaia Data Release 2: Summary of the contents and survey properties". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 616. A1. arXiv:1804.09365. Bibcode:2018A&A...616A...1G. doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201833051. Gaia DR2 record for this source at VizieR.
  3. ^ a b Corradi, R. L. M.; et al. (January 2011). "The Necklace: equatorial and polar outflows from the binary central star of the new planetary nebula IPHASX J194359.5+170901". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 410 (2): 1349–1359. arXiv:1009.1043. Bibcode:2011MNRAS.410.1349C. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2010.17523.x. S2CID 14582043.
  4. ^ Sabin, L.; et al. (October 2014). "First release of the IPHAS catalogue of new extended planetary nebulae". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 443 (4): 3388–3401. arXiv:1407.0109. Bibcode:2014MNRAS.443.3388S. doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1404.
  5. ^ "IRAS 19417+1701". SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  6. ^ Hubble Offers a Dazzling View of the 'Necklace' Nebula, news release STScI-2011-24 dated August 11, 2011, from Space Telescope Science Institute
  7. ^ "In the Sky with Diamonds". Retrieved April 24, 2021.
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