A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals for the first time the delicate interplay of cosmic dust and stellar winds in the Egg Nebula, a bipolar protoplanetary nebula within the constellation Cygnus.
This Hubble image shows the Egg Nebula. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Bruce Balick, UWashington.
The Egg Nebula resides approximately 1,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus.
Also known the Cygnus Egg and the Egg, the nebula hosts a central star obscured by a dense cloud of dust and is around 0.4 light-years wide.
“The Egg Nebula is the first, youngest, and closest pre-planetary nebula ever discovered,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“The nebula offers a rare opportunity to test theories of late-stage stellar evolution.”
“At this early phase, it shines by reflecting light from its central star, which escapes through a polar ‘eye’ in the surrounding dust.”
“This light emerges from a dusty disk expelled from the star’s surface just a few hundred years ago.”
“Twin beams from the dying star illuminate fast-moving polar lobes that pierce a slower, older series of concentric arcs.”
“Their shapes and motions suggest gravitational interactions with one or more hidden companion stars, all buried deep within the thick disk of stardust.”
“Stars like our Sun shed their outer layers as they exhaust their hydrogen and helium fuel,” they said.
“The exposed core becomes so hot that it ionizes surrounding gas, creating the glowing shells seen in planetary nebulae such as the Helix, Stingray, and Butterfly nebulae.”
“However, the compact Egg Nebula is still in a brief transitional phase — known as the pre-planetary stage — that lasts only a few thousand years.”
“This makes it an ideal time to study the ejection process while the forensic evidence remains fresh.”
“The symmetrical patterns captured by Hubble are too orderly to result from a violent explosion like a supernova.”
“Instead, the arcs, lobes, and central dust cloud likely stem from a coordinated series of poorly understood sputtering events in the carbon-enriched core of the dying star.”
“Aged stars like these forged and released the dust that eventually seeded future star systems, such as our own Solar System, which coalesced into Earth and other rocky planets 4.5 billion years ago.”