The emblematic ring nebula It was discovered in 1779 by the Frenchman Charles Messier and, now, a team of astronomers He found a mysterious iron cloud shaped like a bar inside.
The details of this cloud of iron atoms are published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in an article signed, among others, by scientists from University College London (UCL) and Cardiff University.
It is shaped like a bar or stripe and fits perfectly into the inner layer of the elliptical-shaped nebula, known from many images, including those obtained by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Two cameras aboard Webb captured images of the Ring Nebula (NASA, ESA, CSA and STScI).The length of the bar is approximately 500 times that of Pluto’s orbit around the Sun and, according to the team, its mass of iron atoms is comparable to the mass of Mars, explain separate statements from the British institutions.
It was discovered in observations obtained using the Large Integral Field Unit (LIFU) mode of a new instrument, the WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE), installed on the 4.2-meter William Herschel telescope.
The William Herschel is the main telescope of the Isaac Newton Telescope Group, which in turn is part of the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory on La Palma, Canary Islands. The group is jointly operated by the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain (Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias).
The iconic Ring Nebula was discovered in 1779.«Although the Ring Nebula has been studied with many different telescopes and instruments, WEAVE has allowed us to observe it in a new way, providing much more detail than before,» says Roger Wesson.
Wesson adds that by obtaining a continuous spectrum of the entire nebula, images can be created at any wavelength and its chemical composition determined at any position.
What was clearly discovered
As we processed the data and reviewed the images, one thing stood out clearly: the previously unknown bar of ionized iron atoms in the middle of the familiar, iconic ring.
They found something sensational inside the iconic Ring Nebula.According to the authors, Its formation is currently a mystery; More detailed observations are needed to unravel what is happening.
There are two possible scenarios: the iron rod could reveal something new about how the parent star’s ejection of the nebula progressed, or, more intriguingly, the iron could be a plasma arc resulting from the vaporization of a rocky planet trapped in the star’s previous expansion.
«We certainly need to know more, particularly if there are other chemical elements that coexist with the newly detected iron, as this would probably tell us the right type of model to follow. At this time, we are missing this important information,» says Janet Drew.
The strange Ring Nebula.The team is working on a follow-up study and plans to obtain data using WEAVE’s LIFU at higher spectral resolution to better understand how the bar may have formed.
Wesson says that «it would be very surprising» if the Ring’s iron bar were unique. «We hope that as we observe and analyze more nebulae created in the same way, we will discover more examples of this phenomenon, which will help us understand where the iron comes from.»
EFE Agency.
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