Comments on: The green ghost of a distant dead star

By: Spectacular spherical star cluster imaged by Hubble | ZME Science

Spectacular spherical star cluster imaged by Hubble | ZME Science — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:52:43 +0000

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By: Life and death in the galaxy next door – msnbc.com (blog) | Google News - iWooho.com

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 10:16:40 +0000

[...] Hubble Finds Stellar Life and Death in a Globular ClustereNews Park ForestThe green ghost of a distant dead starDiscover Magazine [...]

By: Mick

Mick — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 05:38:28 +0000

Coincidental alignments are common in astronomy. However, careful measurements seem to indicate the nebula is in fact in the cluster itself.

Is it possible that the nebula is simply passing through the cluster?

By: Wzrd1

Wzrd1 — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:46:13 +0000

Personally, I find it hard to gush over the death of a possible solar system.
Would you gush so over the nebula that Sol produces, were you shoved into the impossible future to an alien audience?
The star had its fatal heart attack, yelling, “Elizabeth, I’m coming honey! It’s the big one!” and then passed on, killing any potential life form within a light year or three.
So, rather than coolness, perhaps a bit of respect for the death of a star.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:15:08 +0000

It’s not a star — there are no green stars

Except maybe Zubeneschamali (Beta Librae) and a few companion stars such as Antares B which, okay, are probably due to contrast effects.

Although :

“At least some observers see it (Antares B) as distinctly greenish even when Antares itself is still hidden by the Moon.” (During an occultation.)

-Page 219, Fred Schaaf, The Brightest Stars’, John Wiley & Sons, 2008.

Oddly enough, Antares B & Zubeneschamali are both B8 dwarfs although it must be admitted few others stars of this class appear greenish.

When I was working on Hubble, I found one by accident! Called M94-20, it was previously known, but never before seen in such detail. I was able to glean some information from it, like its size, what it was composed of, and some characteristics of its central star… which is all pretty remarkable, given that it’s 1.6 quintillion kilometers away!

Congrats – belated because this is the first I’ve heard you mention it – that is one superluminous discovery.

By: Jess Tauber

Jess Tauber — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 02:11:12 +0000

Blue Stragglers,
Green Nebulae
Red Butler-
Frankly my dear,
I don’t give a deuteron

By: Tara Li

Tara Li — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:24:17 +0000

Because of the response curve of the human eye, Lyr, and the shape of the blackbody radiation curve. There’s a post somewhere back in the archives here about the color of stars – and how it relates to the background of space.

By: Lyr

Lyr — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 01:11:42 +0000

I’ve often wondered…why are there no green stars? We have red, orange, yellow…then blue. Why no green?

By: Kim

Kim — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 21:42:54 +0000

Wait a minute! You’ve already talked about blue stragglers (and we can see some in this globular cluster), why can’t this planetary nebula be some straggler’s remnant?

By: Tara Li

Tara Li — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 20:03:44 +0000

It’s a really neat image! While looking at it, I was also intrigued by the galaxy in the 7:30 position – at first, I thought maybe it was a ring galaxy – those are always neat (and that one with the core-shot – Auriga’s Wheel – now *THAT* is cool).

I then found myself laughing after I looked at the full-sized version, and realized that it’s “Oh, just another spiral.” I reduced the magnificence of a huge confluence of stars to “Oh, just…” It’s scary that we can get so inured to the wonderful universe!