Hubble Looks More Closely @ Ant Nebula

avandesande writes "CNN is reporting on a new ant-shaped nebula that has been discovered. The story is short, but I think that this nebula belongs in the 'top 20 cool looking things in space' list."

Not quite unique, but still pretty cool

[J.Random Hacker]

I remember seeing another nebula photo with similar characteristics, but which was slightly tilted toward the viewer. It has the same hour-class pinch in the middle, but the main structure was more hour-glass like -- as if it were still a pressure wave, while this one looks more like a burst baloon at the instant just after the puncture.

ah -- i remember now

[J.Random Hacker]

It is a young star called Eta Carinae.

Interesting that a dying star and an apparently new star show a similar shockwave pattern....

{searching the web}

There is a better writeup at STSci [stsci.edu]. They also mention Eta C.

Re:ah -- i remember now

[lessa]

Eta Carinae is also a dying star. It is remarkable for it large size and brightess.

Actually, the hourglass shape with a pinch in the middle seems to be the norm for
dying stars (particularly red giants blowing off layers of gas). As the article says, however,
the really interesting part is: why does a mostly spherically symmetric object like
a star produce such a directed "explosion"? The most universal answer I've heard so far
is the angular momentum one (the star is spinning with a particular axis; the explosion behaves
differently at the poles and equator). It just doesn't seem to have enough magnitude, though.

why not regular?

[bluelip]

They state that the expected there to be more chaos. Why would this event no follow the laws of physics? Yes, I'm sure there was a load of turbulence. weird gravitational/magnetic fields and the like, but wouldn't these make the object have more of a shape than a random placing of the resultant material?

why not...

[maddogsparky]

Could it just be that we are seeing a disk-shaped nebula on edge? Picture looking at a disk that is thin in the middle and thicker at the edges, like a tire on a wheel.

Re:why not regular?

[Steeltoe]

Chaotic != Random

In fact chaotic systems often exhibit non-random behaviour in most unexpected ways. So even though turbulent environments may look pretty unorganized, sometimes the system _seemingly_ manages to organize itself through feedback. However, the organization is ALWAYS complex. Just look at mandelbrot. At a distance it seems so simple, yet....

All in all, what may look simple in nature, is usually much more rich in details. Yet we continue to search for simple clues to interpret and simplify the world around us, because that's how our logics works.

IMHO, I believe we put ourselves in danger when we _believe_ our simplified models..

- Steeltoe

Re:why not regular? somebody built it??

[oatsnbeans]

so these types of structures aren't rare - and we have no explanation yet.

1 possibility; more detailed models of a star's magnetic field late in development will reveal spontaneous 'knotting' of field lines etc... Another possibility - engineered magnetic turbulence to make it easier for some extraterrestrial civilization to mine volatile materials (instead of being going in all directions the expelled plasma flows out the poles - how convenient)

didn't Dyson propose looking for the infrared signature of stars around which a shell had been built to capture their radiation output? Not found, maybe looking for the wrong type of structures.... dream on!