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A Primer on Cosmic Sprinklers
The planetary nebula Fleming 1, as seen with ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Credit: ESO/H. Boffin
The neat thing about planetary nebulae is that they are like snowflakes: no two are quite the same. Some look like pools of hot water, some look like glowing eyes in the night and others, like this image of Fleming 1, have twin jets of material spiraling outward from the center resembling a huge cosmic sprinkler.
And for the first time, astronomers with the European Southern Observatory have paired new Very Large Telescope images of Fleming 1 with computer models to explain how the intricate dance between two dead stars result in these bizarre nebulae that appear to be flinging material out into space. The team’s findings were published in the November 9, 2012 issue of the journal Science.
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Read the rest of A Primer on Cosmic Sprinklers (515 words)
© John Williams for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | 5 comments |
Post tags: ESO, Fleming 1, planetary nebulae, Very Large Telescope (VLT)
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2012-11-12 19:42:00
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/98418/a-primer-on-cosmic-sprinklers/
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