An interstellar butterfly

Esahubble_potw1410a_1024

esahubble_potw1410a March 10th, 2014

Credit: NASA, ESA, and R. Sahai (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)

They say the flap of a butterfly's wings can set off a tornado on the other side of the world. But what happens when a butterfly flaps its wings in the depths of space? This cosmic butterfly is a nebula known as AFGL 4104, or Roberts 22. Caused by a star that is nearing the end of its life and has shrugged off its outer layers, the nebula emerges as a cosmic chrysalis to produce this striking sight. Studies of the lobes of Roberts 22 have shown an amazingly complex structure, with countless intersecting loops and filaments. A butterfly's life span is counted in weeks; although on a much longer timescale, this stage of life for Roberts 22 is also transient. It is currently a preplanetary nebula, a short-lived phase that begins once a dying star has pushed much of the material in its outer layers into space, and ends once this stellar remnant becomes hot enough to ionise the surrounding gas clouds and make them glow. About 400 years ago, the star at the centre of Roberts 22 shed its outer shells, which raced outwards to form this butterfly. The central star will soon be hot enough to ionise the surrounding gas, and it will evolve into a fully fledged planetary nebula. Information about the nature, age, and structure of Roberts 22 was presented in a paper using Hubble data back in 1999, published in The Astronomical Journal.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1410a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
AFGL 4104
Subject - Milky Way
Nebula > Type > Planetary
Esahubble_potw1410a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 10h 21m 33.6s
DEC = -58° 5’ 47.3”
Orientation
North is 97.5° CW
Field of View
0.5 x 0.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Carina

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (R) 673.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw1410a_1280
×
ID
potw1410a
Subject Category
B.4.1.3  
Subject Name
AFGL 4104
Credits
NASA, ESA, and R. Sahai (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
Release Date
2014-03-10T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1410a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Orange, Cyan
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, H-alpha
Central Wavelength
673, 656
Start Time
1997-04-12T00:11:15, 1997-04-12T00:00:00
Integration Time
1200, 400
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
155.389952935, -58.0964651705
Reference Dimension
651.0, 586.0
Reference Pixel
325.0, 293.0
Scale
-1.38393504979e-05, 1.38393504979e-05
Rotation
-97.4599999999999
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1410a
Metadata Date
2013-09-20T17:17:53+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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