The Puffy Ring Nebula:
A SPHERICAL WIND BLOWN BUBBLE
A cosmic smoke ring? No this nebula (also known as NGC
6369) is the gravestone
of a dying sun-like star more than 1000 light years (a trillion trillion
trillion miles) away.
The glowing ring shown in this Hubble Space Telescope image is actually
a spherical shell
of gas produced 5,000 years ago. The star
at
the center is just like the sun only 5 billion years older.
As it the star ages it drives a sequence of powerful winds
into space. The older the star gets
the faster the wind becomes. The fast winds overtake the slower ones
sweeping them up
into the bright glowing shell you see in this picture.
There are other examples of spherical wind blown bubbles around dying stars.
Click on the images below to see some more.
 
|