{"id":463643,"date":"2026-05-23T16:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/463643\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T16:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T16:32:09","slug":"this-is-the-1500-year-old-light-from-a-dying-star-and-it-has-a-little-surprise-at-its-core","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/463643\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the 1,500-year-old light from a dying star \u2013\u00a0and it has a little surprise at its core"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Gemini North telescope has captured new images of the Crystal Ball Nebula, a cosmic cloud of gas being emitted by a dying star.<\/p>\n

Officially named NGC 1514, the Crystal Ball reveals what happens when a star similar to our Sun begins to use up its fuel and cast off its outer shell into space.<\/p>\n

The image was captured using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph on the Gemini North telescope, located on Maunakea in Hawai\u2018i.<\/p>\n

More on planetary nebulae<\/p>\n

\"RedCredit: NASA; ESA; Hans Van Winckel (Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium); and Martin Cohen (University of California, Berkeley)<\/p>\n

Video showing the Crystal Ball Nebula, captured by the Gemini North Telescope. Credit: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/N. Bartmann. Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab). Music: Produced by Konstantino Polizois<\/p>\n

The dying star is producing what astronomers refer to as a planetary nebula<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A planetary nebula has nothing to do with planets, but these objects are so-called because of their often round, puffed-out shape, which resembles a planetary body.<\/p>\n

The Crystal Ball Nebula was discovered by astronomer William Herschel<\/a> in 1790.<\/p>\n

Now powerful, modern telescopes like Gemini North are giving astronomers a clear view of this planetary nebula and how it’s changing over time.<\/p>\n

It’s about 1,500 lightyears from Earth, which means it has taken light from the nebula 1,500 years to reach us. In effect, we’re looking back in time.<\/p>\n

As the star casts its outer shell into space, radiation from the exposed inner core of the star energises the gas, producing temperatures up to around 15,000K (14,700\u00b0C or 26,500\u00b0F).<\/p>\n

That’s nearly three times as hot as the surface of the Sun.<\/p>\n

Video zooming in on the Crystal Ball Nebula, captured by the Gemini North Telescope. Credit: International Gemini Observatory\/NOIRLab\/NSF\/AURA\/N. Bartmann. Image Processing: J. Miller & M. Rodriguez (International Gemini Observatory\/NSF NOIRLab), T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage\/NSF NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF NOIRLab). Music: Produced by Konstantino Polizois
\nA surprise at the Crystal Ball’s core<\/p>\n

The reason the Crystal Ball nebula has a slightly asymmetrical shape is because at it’s heart lies not just one, but two stars.<\/p>\n

These two stars orbit each other over a period of about nine years. Scientists say that’s the longest known orbital period for any binary star pair in a planetary nebula.<\/p>\n

It’s thought that one of the stars was once several times more massive than our Sun, but is expelling its outer layers as it ages.<\/p>\n

And as these stars orbit one another, they’re moulding the expanding shell of gas and forming the lumpy layers we see today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Gemini North telescope has captured new images of the Crystal Ball Nebula, a cosmic cloud of gas…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[61,60,82],"class_list":["post-463643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}