Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Fornax (For)  ·  Contains:  NGC 1360
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NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows, Jeff Weiss
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NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows, Jeff Weiss
Powered byPixInsight

NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows

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Description

NGC1360 is a pretty cosmic cloud that lies some 1,500 light-years away, it's shape and color reminiscent of a blue robin's egg. It spans about 3 light-years, nesting securely within the boundaries of the southern constellation Fornax. Recognized as a planetary nebula, NGC 1360  corresponds to a brief and final phase in the evolution of an aging star. In fact, visible in the telescopic image is the central star of NGC 1360 which is known to be a binary star system likely consisting of two evolved white dwarf stars, less massive but much hotter than the Sun. Their intense and otherwise invisible ultraviolet radiation has stripped away electrons from the atoms in the surrounding gaseous shroud. The predominant blue-green hue of NGC 1360 seen here is the strong emission produced as electrons recombine with doubly ionized oxygen atoms. {from 2018 NASA APOD write-up}.

   The total of 63 hrs of LRGBHO data in this image were collected by DeepSKyWest at Rio Hurtado, Chile with 27 hours collected in the end of 2021 & January 2022 and completed with another 36 hours in the end of 2022 & January 2023.

Software: PixInsight 1.8.9-1, Postscript CS6, BlurXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, StarXTerminator (R. Croman) and GeneralizedHyperbolicStretch (D. Payne & M. Cranfield).

Processing involved further development and refinement of my workflow and techniques for utilizing the three AI-based tools and GHS.  RGB stars only were used here.

Mau Bard raised an interesting question about the apparent jetstream or polar outflow feature just above NGC 1360 in this image, which I have pursued below in the comments section to
1) establish that the feature is in fact predominantly Ha emission line, not continuum. and
2) found a paper in The Astrophysical Journal by M.T. Garcia-Diaz et al. that uses spectral analysis of Digitized Sky Survey (DSS) data to establish several polar outflows from NGC 1360.
3) show that the detailed feature in this image aligns very well with two of the high velocity polar outflows mapped in the Garcia-Diaz paper.
Details below in my two comments.

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  • NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows, Jeff Weiss
    Original
  • NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows, Jeff Weiss
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  • Final
    NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows, Jeff Weiss
    D

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NGC 1360 Robin's Egg PN and Polar Outflows, Jeff Weiss