{"id":10744,"date":"2024-04-23T12:03:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/hubble-celebrates-34th-anniversary-with-a-look-at-the-little-dumbbell-nebula\/"},"modified":"2024-04-23T12:03:26","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T16:03:26","slug":"hubble-celebrates-34th-anniversary-with-a-look-at-the-little-dumbbell-nebula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zobi.alcowep.com\/bourtagshdrevxnls658739\/hubble-celebrates-34th-anniversary-with-a-look-at-the-little-dumbbell-nebula\/","title":{"rendered":"Hubble Celebrates 34th Anniversary with a Look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hubble Celebrates 34th Anniversary with a Look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula<\/h2>\n

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5 min read<\/p>\n

Hubble Celebrates 34th Anniversary with a Look at the Little Dumbbell Nebula<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA\u2019s legendary\u00a0Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>\u00a0on April 24, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula<\/a> (also known as Messier 76, M76, or NGC 650\/651) located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The photogenic nebula is a favorite target of amateur astronomers.<\/p>\n

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In celebration of the 34th anniversary of the launch of NASA\u2019s legendary Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers took a snapshot of the Little Dumbbell Nebula, also known as Messier 76, or M76, located 3,400 light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Perseus. The name \u2018Little Dumbbell\u2019 comes from its shape that is a two-lobed structure of colorful, mottled, glowing gases resembling a balloon that\u2019s been pinched around a middle waist. Like an inflating balloon, the lobes are expanding into space from a dying star seen as a white dot in the center. Blistering ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.<\/div>\n
NASA, ESA, STScI<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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M76 is classified as a planetary nebula, an expanding shell of glowing gases that were ejected from a dying red giant star. The star eventually collapses to an ultra-dense and hot white dwarf. A planetary nebula is unrelated to planets, but have that name because astronomers in the 1700s using low-power telescopes thought this type of object resembled a planet.<\/p>\n

M76 is composed of a ring, seen edge-on as the central bar structure, and two lobes on either opening of the ring. Before the star burned out, it ejected the ring of gas and dust. The ring was probably sculpted by the effects of the star that once had a binary companion star. This sloughed off material created a thick disk of dust and gas along the plane of the companion\u2019s orbit. The hypothetical companion star isn\u2019t seen in the Hubble image, and so it could have been later swallowed by the central star. The disk would be forensic evidence for that stellar cannibalism.<\/p>\n

The primary star is collapsing to form a white dwarf. It is one of the hottest stellar remnants known at a scorching 250,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 24 times our Sun\u2019s surface temperature. \u2028The sizzling white dwarf can be seen as a pinpoint in the center of the nebula. A star visible in projection beneath it is not part of the nebula.\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

Pinched off by the disk, two lobes of hot gas are escaping from the top and bottom of the \u201cbelt,\u201d along the star\u2019s rotation axis that is perpendicular to the disk. They are being propelled by the hurricane-like outflow of material from the dying star, tearing across space at two million miles per hour. That\u2019s fast enough to travel from Earth to the Moon in a little over seven minutes! This torrential \u201cstellar wind\u201d is plowing into cooler, slower-moving gas that was ejected at an earlier stage in the star\u2019s life, when it was a red giant. Ferocious ultraviolet radiation from the super-hot star is causing the gases to glow. The red color is from nitrogen, and blue is from oxygen.\u2028<\/p>\n

Given our solar system is 4.6 billion years old, the entire nebula is a flash in the pan by cosmological timekeeping. It will vanish in about 15,000 years. \u2028\u2028\u2028<\/p>\n

Hubble\u2019s Star Trekking<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since its launch in 1990 Hubble has made 1.6 million observations of over 53,000 astronomical objects. To date, the\u00a0Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes<\/a>\u00a0at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland holds 184 terabytes of processed data that is science-ready for astronomers around the world to use for research and analysis. Since 1990, 44,000 science papers have been published from Hubble observations. The space telescope is the most scientifically productive space astrophysics mission in NASA history. The demand for using Hubble is so high it is currently oversubscribed by a factor of six-to-one.<\/p>\n

Most of Hubble\u2019s discoveries were not anticipated before launch, such as supermassive black holes, the atmospheres of exoplanets, gravitational lensing by dark matter, the presence of dark energy, and the abundance of planet formation among stars.<\/p>\n

Hubble will continue research in those domains and capitalize on its unique ultraviolet-light capability on such topics as solar system phenomena, supernovae outbursts, composition of exoplanet atmospheres, and dynamic emission from galaxies. And Hubble investigations continue to benefit from its long baseline of observations of solar system objects, stellar variable phenomena and other exotic astrophysics of the cosmos.<\/p>\n

NASA\u2019s\u00a0James Webb Space Telescope<\/a>\u00a0was designed to be meant to be complementary to Hubble, and not a substitute. Future Hubble research also will take advantage of the opportunity for synergies with Webb, which observes the universe in infrared light. The combined wavelength coverage of the two space telescopes expands on groundbreaking research in such areas as protostellar disks, exoplanet composition, unusual supernovae, cores of galaxies and chemistry of the distant universe.<\/p>\n

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Hubble\u2019s Senior Project Scientist Dr. Jennifer Wiseman takes us on a tour of this stunning new image, describes the telescope\u2019s current health, and summarizes some of Hubble\u2019s contributions to astronomy during its 34-year career.
Credit: NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Paul Morris<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Hubble Space Telescope has been operating for over three decades and continues to make ground-breaking discoveries that shape our fundamental understanding of the universe. Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA (European Space Agency). NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope and mission operations. Lockheed Martin Space, based in Denver, Colorado, also supports mission operations at Goddard. The Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, conducts Hubble science operations for NASA.<\/p>\n

Media Contact<\/span>:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Claire Andreoli<\/em><\/strong>
NASA\u2019s\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Goddard Space Flight Center<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0Greenbelt, MD<\/em><\/strong>
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, MD<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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