NGC 1360, also known as the Robin's Egg Nebula, is a planetary nebula in the

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The first constellati ...

Fornax Fornax () is a constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus (constellation), Eridanus. Its name is Latin for furnace. It was named by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille in 1756. Forna ...

. It was identified as a

planetary nebula A planetary nebula is a type of emission nebula consisting of an expanding, glowing shell of ionized gas ejected from red giant stars late in their lives. The term "planetary nebula" is a misnomer because they are unrelated to planets. The ...

due to its strong

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

in the OIII (

oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...

) bands. Reddish matter, believed to have been ejected from the original star before its final collapse, is visible in images.http://www.astrosurf.com/antilhue/ngc1360.htm Astrosurf It is slightly fainter than IC 2003. The central star of the system was suspected to be

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two values (0 and 1) for each digit * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical op ...

since 1977, but was only confirmed in 2017. The central source consists of a low-mass

O-type star An O-type star is a hot, blue star of spectral type O in the Yerkes classification system employed by astronomers. They have surface temperatures in excess of 30,000 kelvins (K). Stars of this type have strong absorption lines of ionised h ...

and a

white dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...

, with masses of and respectively. NGC 1360 was discovered in January 1868 by the German astronomer

Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke Friedrich August Theodor Winnecke (5 February 1835 in Groß-Heere, near Hannover – 3 December 1897 in Bonn) was a German astronomer. Winnecke worked at Pulkovo Observatory near Saint Petersburg from 1858 to 1865, but returned to Germany and ...

References

External links

* http://observing.skyhound.com/archives/dec/NGC_1360.html * Planetary nebulae 1360 Fornax {{Nebula-stub