NGC 3132 or Southern Ring Nebula is more complex than first appears, according to NASA's Webb.
A stellar surprise is revealed by NASA's Webb's new iconic image. The Southern Ring Nebula has more to it than first appears, it is more complex.
According to NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope indication, many stars ‘stirred up’ Southern Ring Nebula.
Before James Webb, the Hubble telescope captured images of the Southern Ring Nebula.
But the Hubble pictures, while stunning, fail to tell the whole truth about this dust cloud, which was formed only 2,500 years ago by the implosion of a dying star (roughly the same size as the Sun).
There were at least two, and possibly three, more unseen stars that created the oblong, curvy shapes of the Southern Ring Nebula, according to data from Webb Space.
Additionally, scientists are able to precisely pinpoint the central star's mass before the nebula's creation, for the first time.
According to their calculations, before it ejected its layers of gas and dust, the central star was about 3 times the mass of the Sun. After those ejections, it is now about 60% of the mass of the Sun.
Knowing the initial mass helped the team rebuild the scene and project how the shapes in this nebula may have been created, which is an important piece of evidence.
They started by focusing on the aging star, which cast off its layers and is still covered by a dusty red 'cloak' of dust.
Research shows that dusty cloaks like these must take the form of dusty disks that orbit the star.
Look at the straight, brightly-lit lines piercing through the rings of gas and dust around the edges of the Southern Ring Nebula.
These 'spokes' appear to emanate from one or both of the central stars, marking where light streams through holes in the nebula.
What is Southern Ring Nebula or NGC 3132 :-
Southern Ring Nebula is also referred to as NGC 3132, Caldwell 74, and the Eight-Burst Nebula. This nebula is estimated to be 613 pc, or 2,000 light-years, away from Earth.
In spite of its name, the Southern Ring Nebula, a so-called planetary nebula, has nothing to do with planets and instead is the product of the implosion of a red giant star.
A red giant, which can be hundreds of times wider than the original star, forms when a star somewhat bigger than the sun runs out of hydrogen fuel in its core.
After shedding its outer layers, which ultimately create the nebula, the red giant eventually contracts into cooling remnants called a white dwarf.
At left, Webb’s image highlights the very hot gas that surrounds the 2 central stars. At right, image traces the star’s scattered molecular outflows that have reached farther into the space.