The Toby Jug Nebula as seen with ESO's Very Large Telescope
Location of the Toby Jug Nebula in the southern constellation of Carina
Wide field view of the area around the Toby Jug Nebula
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ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has
captured a remarkably detailed image of the Toby Jug Nebula, a cloud of
gas and dust surrounding a red giant star. This view shows the
characteristic arcing structure of the nebula, which, true to its name,
does indeed look a little like a jug with a handle.
Located about 1200 light-years from Earth in the southern
constellation of Carina (The Ship’s Keel), the Toby Jug Nebula, more
formally known as IC 2220, is an example of a reflection nebula. It is a
cloud of gas and dust illuminated from within by a star called HD
65750. This star, a type known as a red giant, has five times the mass
of our Sun but it is in a much more advanced stage of its life, despite
its comparatively young age of around 50 million years [1].
The nebula was created by the star, which is losing part of its mass
out into the surrounding space, forming a cloud of gas and dust as the
material cools. The dust consists of elements such as carbon and simple,
heat-resistant compounds such as titanium dioxide and calcium oxide
(lime). In this case, detailed studies of the object in infrared light
point to silicon dioxide (silica) being the most likely compound
reflecting the star’s light.
IC 2220 is visible as the star’s light is reflected off the grains of
dust. This celestial butterfly structure is almost symmetrical, and
spans about one light-year. This phase of a star’s life is short-lived
and such objects are thus rare.
Red giants are formed from stars that are ageing and approaching the
final stages of their evolution. They have almost depleted their
reserves of hydrogen, which fuels the reactions that occur during most
of the life of a star. This causes the atmosphere of the star to expand
enormously. Stars like HD 65750 burn a shell of helium outside a
carbon-oxygen core, sometimes accompanied by a hydrogen shell closer to
the star’s surface.
Billions of years in the future, our Sun will also bloat
into a red giant. It is expected that the solar atmosphere will inflate
well beyond the current orbit of Earth, engulfing all the inner planets
in the process. By then, Earth will be already in very bad shape. The
huge increase of radiation and the strong stellar winds that will
accompany the process of stellar inflation will destroy all life on
Earth and evaporate the water in the oceans, before the entire planet is
finally melted.
British astronomers Paul Murdin, David Allen and David Malin gave IC
2220 the nickname of the Toby Jug Nebula because of its shape, which is
similar to an old English drinking vessel of a type called a Toby Jug with which they were familiar when young.
This image was produced as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme [2].
Notes
[1] Stars with more mass run through
their lives much more quickly than lighter ones such as the Sun, which
have lives measured in billions, rather than millions, of years.
[2] This picture comes from the ESO Cosmic Gems programme,
an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or
visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of
education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time
that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may
also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to
astronomers through ESO’s science archive.
More information
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Contacts
Richard Hook
ESO, Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
ESO, Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org
