Astronomy Picture of the Day
2012 October 30
Explanation: Is this what will become of our Sun? Quite possibly. The
bubble of expanding gas pictured above
is the planetary nebula PK 164 +31.1, the remnants of the atmosphere of a
Sun-like star expelled as its supply of fusion-able core hydrogen became
depleted. Visible near the center of the nebula
is what remains of the core itself -- a blue-hot white dwarf star. This
particularly photogenic planetary nebula shows
intricate shells of gas likely expelled at different times toward the end the
star's demise, and whose structure is not fully understood. This deep image of
PK 164 +31.1 from the Calar Alto
Observatory in Spain shows
many other stars from our own Milky Way Galaxy as
well as several
galaxies far in the distance. PK
164 +31, also known as Jones-Emberson 1, lies
about 1,600 light years away toward the constellation of the Wildcat (Lynx). Due to its
faintness (magnitude 17) and low surface brightness, the object is only visible with
a good-sized telescope. Although the expanding
nebula will fade away over the next few thousand years, the central white dwarf may well survive for billions of
years -- to when our universe may be a very different place.
SOURCE:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap121030.html
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