NGC 3132 (also known as the Eight-Burst Nebula, the Southern Ring Nebula, or Caldwell 74) is a bright and extensively studied

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 ...

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 ...

Vela. Its distance from

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...

is estimated at 613 pc or 2,000

light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...

s. The Southern Ring Nebula was selected as one of the five cosmic objects observed by the

James Webb Space Telescope The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is a space telescope designed to conduct infrared astronomy. As the largest telescope in space, it is equipped with high-resolution and high-sensitivity instruments, allowing it to view objects too old, Lis ...

as part of the release of its first official science images on July 12, 2022.

Planetary nebula nucleus (PNN)

Images of NGC 3132 reveal two stars close together within the nebulosity, one of 10th

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

, the other 16th, located about 1.7 away from the central star. The central star of the planetary nebula is 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 ...

, and is the fainter of the two stars. This hot central star of about 100,000 K has now blown off its outer layers and is making the nebula fluoresce brightly from the emission of its intense

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

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 ...

. The 10th magnitude star is an

A-type main-sequence star An A-type main-sequence star (A) or A dwarf star is a main-sequence (hydrogen burning) star of spectral type A and luminosity class (five). These stars have spectra defined by strong hydrogen Balmer absorption lines. They measure between 1 ...

of type A2V, and is separated from the white dwarf by at least 1277 au. The A-type star orbits at roughly the same distance as the edge of a dust cloud surrounding the central white dwarf. The system is likely a quadruple

star system A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravity, gravitational attraction. It may sometimes be used to refer to a single star. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally calle ...

. The progenitor star of the planetary nebula had a mass of about 2.86 times that of the Sun.

References

External links

Hubble Heritage Project
– Image of NGC 3132 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ngc 3132 Planetary nebulae Vela (constellation) 3132 074b 18350302

Planetary nebula nucleus (PNN)

See also

References

External links