Comments on: An enigmatic blue bubble in space

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 12:46:17 +0000

Great Planetary nebula and image – cheers!

@18. Dragonchild : or perhaps “off” the internet instead?

@17. Brad :

OK, I’m probably really grasping at improbability straws here, but… Is there any tiny chance that it once was more oval-shaped and then got “blown back” from one side into a spherical shape? And maybe we just happen to be at the perfect angle and perfect time where it’s spherical from out POV.

That second suggestion sounds most plausible to me. I think the appearance of a lot of Planetaries depends fairly heavily on which angle we’re seeing them from so yeah.

OTOH, the interstellar medium (ISM) is denser in some parts that others and that could play a role in shaping the morphology of this planetary too so, not out of the question in my view. Seems less likely to result in such a symmetrical bubble and that ISM density loops of gas / dust / whatever are so conveniently placed across such a relatively small area however.

Disclaimer though – I’m not an expert on Planetaries – just educated speculation. Maybe someone who knows more can enlighten us?

@12. fedra :

There must be a misunderstanding. Isn’t Abell 33 a cluster of galaxies? This object is named – together with the other labels – PN G238.0+34.8.

Well, doing a google images search using ‘Abell 33′ turns up firstly and mostly this Planetary neb so that seems to be a correct name for it. It is quite possible for this planetary to have both those designations and more as well. Indeed it is very common practice – if confusing – for any given astronomical object to have multiple ctalaogue designations for instance, Rho-1 Cancris is also 55 Cancris and no doubt has other designations as well. UV Ceti is also Luyten’s Flare Star, Luyten 726-8, Gliese 65 & BL Ceti.

Wikipedia notes the existence of the Abell galaxy cluster catalaogue – click on my name here for link – but also acknowledges an Abell Planetary nebula catalogue exists as well although the link to that is currently dead.

By: Mike Torr

Mike Torr — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:14:30 +0000

This is beautiful!

When I saw “bubble” in the title, I thought you might be going to talk about that “spherical object eating plasma from our sun” video. Has that been brought to your attention yet Phil?

By: Dragonchild

Dragonchild — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:05:03 +0000

A wise man once said, “If you think that looks like a vagina. . . you need to get on the Internet more.”

By: Brad

Brad — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 23:38:09 +0000

“The wind it expels gets “blown back” by gas in between the stars… I’d expect the nebula itself to be compressed along one side, which it isn’t”

“Most are oval, or barrel-shaped, or something even weirder.”

OK, I’m probably really grasping at improbability straws here, but… Is there any tiny chance that it once was more oval-shaped and then got “blown back” from one side into a spherical shape? And maybe we just happen to be at the perfect angle and perfect time where it’s spherical from out POV.

By: kuhnigget

kuhnigget — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:23:07 +0000

Snif! I pointed out that Hubble paper first! ./.

mumble mumble mumble… (cue Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer)

By: Phil Plait

Phil Plait — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:13:19 +0000

JR (13): aHA! I didn’t use SIMBAD for this (ironically, since I was just using it for another unusual object I have yet to write about). Interesting. The distance they get is more than twice the old estimate, but is likely to be better. I measured the binary separation off my screen, so I’m not surprised I was off a bit there (though in a coincidence they get the same physical separation of 2000 AU).

By: chief

chief — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 21:09:52 +0000

Abell 33 reminds me of the PanAm sequence in 2001. Cue the music.

Don’t see enough blue stuff, really catches your eye.

By: JR

JR — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:33:20 +0000

@4 SIMBAD FTW. The most recent reference (Weidman & Gamen) points to (among many other things) Ciardullo et al. 1999, which calls the central star a probable binary:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999AJ….118..488C

The HST data they use for that paper can be seen at the Hubble Legacy Archive:

http://bit.ly/xKtQzc

Whee!

By: fedra

fedra — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 20:32:51 +0000

There must be a misunderstanding. Isn’t Abell 33 a cluster of galaxies? This object is named – together with the other labels – PN G238.0+34.8.
However, very cool object indeed!

By: Crux Australis

Crux Australis — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:55:14 +0000

If the source system was a binary, wouldn’t the nebula be less symmetrical? As in, wouldn’t the gas be released at different speeds as the two stars orbited each other, resulting in some more pronounced structure within the nebula?