GARDEN SPRINKLER NABULA IN MAKING; EXCELLENCE OF COSMOS
14th Oct 2012
The Universe is filled with mysterious objects. Many of them are as strange as they are beautiful. Among these, planetary nebulae are probably one of the most fascinating objects to behold in the night sky. No other type of object has such a large variety of shapes and structures. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has recently provided a striking image of Hen 3-1475, a planetary nebula in the making.
Hen 3-1475 is located in the constellation of Sagittarius around 18,000 light-years away from us. The central star is more than 12,000 times as luminous as our sun. Its most characteristic feature is a thick ring of dust around the central star and two S-shaped jets that are emerging from the pole regions of the central star. These jets are long outflows of fast-moving gas travelling at hundreds of kilometers per second. It is like an enormous, slowly rotating garden sprinkler in the middle of the sky. No wonder astronomers also have nicknamed this object the "Garden-sprinkler Nebula."
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