Image of the Day: Mysterious Glowing Spiral Sighted in a Remote Star System
None of the world's experts no what the strange spiral structure on the left is. Why the spiral glows is itself a mystery, with a leading hypothesis being illumination by light reflected from nearby stars. NASA astronomers think it is related to a star in a binary star system entering the planetary nebula phase, when its outer atmosphere is ejected. The huge spiral spans about a third of a light year across and, winding four or five complete turns, has a regularity that has never been observed before. Given the expansion rate of the spiral gas, a new layer must appear about every 800 years, a close match to the time it takes for the two stars to orbit each other. The star system that created it is known as LL Pegasi. The image was taken in near-infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Image credit: ESA, Hubble, R. Sahai (JPL), NASA
Comments
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None of the world's experts no what the strange spiral structure on the left is.
"no" are you kidding me? *KNOW*
Posted by: Jason | March 04, 2011 at 12:35 AM
"None of the world's experts no what the strange spiral structure on the left is."
Are you taking the piss? Do you not KNOW how to spell NO??
Posted by: rstgsrgt | March 04, 2011 at 02:21 AM
Of course you guys have never made a typo in your lifes :)
Posted by: Gary | March 04, 2011 at 03:53 AM
That would be "lives", Gary. The correct Pluralization of the suffix "-ife" is "-ives". :)
Posted by: ChrisT | March 04, 2011 at 07:45 AM
Really? This marvelous event is posted and all you guys notice are the typos and grammar mistakes?
Posted by: Comicnaut | March 04, 2011 at 08:15 AM
Really? This marvelous event is posted and all you guys notice are the typos and grammar mistakes?
Posted by: Comicnaut | March 04, 2011 at 08:15 AM
LOL!!!
Posted by: HANK | March 04, 2011 at 08:32 AM
Explanation: A failed Russian missile test.
Posted by: HANK | March 04, 2011 at 08:39 AM
Reminds me of a panel from a Dr. Strange comic book story. Who knew that back then, the artist was prescient enough to include actual outer space artifacts?
Posted by: Mysteri-O | March 04, 2011 at 11:13 AM
U kill me!!! ROFL
Posted by: Love the Hank | March 04, 2011 at 11:17 AM
Looks like a galaxy that we are looking down or up on i.e.,it is not at an angle of say 30 or 60 degrees it my be at 90 degrees.
The one at the far left looks like the same thing.The one to the right and up looks like a galaxy as seen from the side.
Most stars exist in galaxy unless ejected by a galaxy.
Posted by: William R.Templeton | March 04, 2011 at 12:14 PM
''Of course you guys have never made a typo in your lifes :)''
It's not a 'typo', it is completely the wrong word. A 'typo' is short for 'Typing Error'.
I started reading the article and thought here we go again, on the first sentence to! 'no' instead of 'know' wow, that's a primary school error at best? The grammar and spelling are getting very bad on this site, probably quite a turn off for a lot of people. Shame because the articles are actually very interesting.
Looking down on a galaxy? I think not.
You can actually follow the spiral down toward the centre of the 'structure' - as if something is spiralling into the centre.
Very peculiar.
Posted by: NO | March 04, 2011 at 02:51 PM
"I started reading the article and thought here we go again, on the first sentence to!"
Get it together. It's not "to", it's "too".
Posted by: Robert | March 04, 2011 at 05:49 PM
Snot a typo atoll.
Posted by: Kallex Wolf | March 04, 2011 at 07:30 PM
Snot a typo atoll.
Posted by: Kallex Wolf | March 04, 2011 at 07:30 PM
i like this artical very much thank you ,I want to see you more articles.
Posted by: usb device | March 04, 2011 at 10:18 PM
Ders a star near that ting, so its nut a galksi, because if it is,,, damn that a galactical syze star.. with my grEYD one no ledge in asstronomi, i tink its a flanet with wild volcanos or weathere.. or something (asteroyd)hits it that cause it spewing those things to the owter space....
PS...please correct my grammartization and typos... lots of genius here.. or feeling?..;-)
Posted by: PierceNoda | March 04, 2011 at 10:44 PM
lolz. by Mr. Groupon Clone Php
Posted by: Groupon Clone Php | March 05, 2011 at 04:36 AM
That spiral am a stellar hypnotic device that causes viewers to create typos.
Posted by: Robert | March 05, 2011 at 08:00 AM
its the klingons with their new anti matter weapons test.
Posted by: pokwang | March 05, 2011 at 08:46 AM
Meybey its' a explozin: like a BIG BanG. And it gone to kreate a knew galiksi that us earflinks kin fli over ther and/to kolonize.
Posted by: Wild Earlnutz | March 05, 2011 at 07:20 PM
Gravitational contrail from a warp drive spacecraft that ran into a debris field while exiting a temporary wormhole causing it to spin violently out of control. The glow is due to the expulsion of the di-lithium crystals. Obviously.
Dont you guys no nuttin hey?
Either that or the Hubble has finally picked up on the 21st century "text and tweet" vocabulary and grammatical system and is sending back abreviated signals to simply save space and time. (pun & jab intended)
Posted by: Phil L | March 06, 2011 at 07:00 AM
Oh, obviously, its a failed russian rocket test, like the one that made the lovely plasma jet from the sun, the spiral, and the black disc in the syk over norway in 2009.
Posted by: sillynilly | March 07, 2011 at 05:55 AM
A failed Russian rocket test in Norway?
LOL, do you drones believe everything you hear on the news??
Posted by: Jimmy Tonga | March 07, 2011 at 09:08 AM
No inteligent life here Scotty, beam me out of here quick I think I'm losing IQ points!!
Posted by: Noname | March 07, 2011 at 12:43 PM