This
Astrobin Debut Object is a planetary nebula located 9000 light years away in the constellation of Pyxis at a declination of -29 degrees. It is a magnitude 15.3 PN which spans 1.8 arc-minutes in our apparent view. This corresponds to a diameter of 4 light years, twice the size of a typical PN. This object is a member of the Kohoutek PN catalog.
The nebulae of many PN show the influence of bi-polar jets, but is the only PN I know of which has a visible bi-polar jet. The jet is emanating from the central progenitor white star, the binary star VW Pyx. This binary has an orbital period of 0.7 days. The bi-polar jet is ejecting in the 1 o’clock and 7 o’clock directions.
The existence of the jet-like feature of K1-2 was first reported in a 1989 publication. Note that the bottom jet is not quite perfectly aligned with the progenitor star.
The nebula itself is also interesting. It is dominant in OIII but has a strong HII region in the center.
I am puzzled why the nebula shape does not seem to be affected by the bi-polar jet structure. They seem to be 2 independent features of this PN.
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