Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Lynx (Lyn)  ·  Contains:  PK164+31.1
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The Headphone Nebula (Jones-Emberson 1), Eric Coles (coles44)
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The Headphone Nebula (Jones-Emberson 1)

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The Headphone Nebula (Jones-Emberson 1), Eric Coles (coles44)
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The Headphone Nebula (Jones-Emberson 1)

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Description

I included the following description in an earlier posting of the Soap Bubble Nebula some time ago. It applies here just as well. For reference, you can see the so called "white dwarf" star in the center of the nebula. In this case it is still blue, and has not yet reached white dwarf status.

Here is a description of the relationship between a planetary nebula and a white dwarf. This is the reference.(http://cse.ssl.berkeley.edu/bmendez/ay10/2000/cycle/planetarynebula.html )

As an aging red supergiant becomes more and more luminous, the outer layers puff out more and more. It gets to the point where the star loses gravitational hold on its outer layers and they get pushed away the pressure exerted by the stellar wind and by the photons leaving the core. (Yes, light can exert a pressure!)

These shed outer layers are called a planetary nebula. As this planetary nebula continues to drift away, it becomes a part of the interstellar medium.

What is left behind is a degenerate core made of carbon and oxygen. There's not enough mass in the core to collapse the core any further. It will therefore never be hot enough to fuse carbon or oxygen to make any heavier elements.

This hot ball of carbon and oxygen, held up by degeneracy pressure, is called a white dwarf.

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The Headphone Nebula (Jones-Emberson 1), Eric Coles (coles44)

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