Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Carina (Car)  ·  Contains:  IC 2220  ·  Toby Jug Nebula

Image of the day 03/22/2021

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    Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour
      Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour

      Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug)

      Image of the day 03/22/2021

      Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
        Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour
          Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour

          Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug)

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          Description

          There are very few known red-orange reflective nebulae, and they are always linked to giant red stars. In this case, the star HR 3126 of its sweet little name, a red giant of type M2II, has a mass of about 5 solar masses and a magnitude of about 6.5 (it is a variable star). Usually, reflection nebulae are blue, reflecting and scattering light from blue stars that had formed in the surrounding area. IC 2220 was formed by the ejection of material from HR 3126 and the mass of this biconical cloudiness was calculated to be 0.7 solar mass. Spectral analysis of the nebula shows that, following the usual characteristic of reflection nebulae, the reflected light is slightly more bluish than the light originally emitted from the star. So look for the blue one now!

          Normally the color image shows only the central part of the nebula but if we add a lot of exposure time with a narrow band H-Alpha filter, then we reveal another interesting aspect to this object. The central star has ejected matter in several phases and this can be seen by the reddish nebulosity which surrounds it in the form of bubbles. 27 hours of acquisition only with this filter were necessary!

          If you are interested in knowing more about the recent (2018) discovery of these bubbles by amateur astronomer Josep Drutis, I invite you to visit the following links.

          Discovery Research Notes

          and

          Josep's blog on this subject

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            Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour
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            Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour
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          Butterfly Nebula and its cocoon (Toby Jug), Patrick Dufour