Astronomers Uncover the Mystery of the Special Arrangement of Planetary nebula

2023-07-18

Ten years ago, astronomers found a group of mysterious Planetary nebula near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which were aligned almost parallel to the galactic plane. But astronomers have never found the reason behind this special arrangement. Nowadays, this puzzle has been jointly solved by Chinese and foreign astronomers. Based on the observation data collected in the past 10 years, researchers from the University of Hong Kong and other institutions found the reason behind the special arrangement of Planetary nebula. They believe that this mysterious arrangement phenomenon only exists in the planetary nebula formed when the main star with a close companion star dies, which is likely to be caused by the companion effect in the close binary star. Relevant research results were published online in Astrophysics Journal Express on July 13. When the life of stars ends, they will eject matter into space, forming hourglass or butterfly like structures. These beautiful stellar relics are called Planetary nebula by astronomers. Although these Planetary nebula formed at different times, are completely independent of each other, have different characteristics and properties, and are in different places, astronomers discovered 10 years ago that many hourglass shaped Planetary nebula are arranged in unusual ways in space, and they are all parallel to the galactic plane. For 10 years, astronomers have been working hard to uncover the reasons behind this special arrangement. The formation of stars in the nucleus of the Milky Way is a complex process that involves various factors such as gravity, turbulence, magnetic fields, and interactions between particles. So far, we still lack evidence to prove which mechanisms may cause this process to occur and generate such consistency. This time, the researchers used the Very Large Telescope of the European Southern Observatory to investigate 136 confirmed Planetary nebula in the galactic nucleus. At the same time, they also used high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope images to recheck and measure 40 Planetary nebula studied by astronomers 10 years ago. They found that this special arrangement only existed in the planetary nebula formed when the main star with close companion stars died. The shape of these Planetary nebula is almost symmetrical, and their special arrangement may be related to the initial separation of binary components at the time of star birth. Researchers believe that binary stars may have formed under strong magnetic fields. This strong magnetic field may affect the orbit axis of the binary system, thus affecting the Planetary nebula generated during the formation of binary stars. The companion stars of these stars may have caused this mysterious arrangement, "said Quentin Parker, a professor at the University of Hong Kong and the corresponding author of the paper. "The significance of this study is that we now know that this arrangement only exists in a very special subset of the Planetary nebula. These special arrangements of Planetary nebula are in the close binary system that has been observed or can be inferred from spectral measurement data. This shows that there is a continuous and controlled process that affects these objects over billions of years and far away. This is an important development Now, but it's difficult to explain Quentin Parker pointed out. Albert Zierstra, a professor at the University of Manchester in the UK and a co-author of the paper, said that this discovery can help us further understand this unusual arrangement. Planet

Edit:XiaoWanNing    Responsible editor:YingLing

Source:Science and Technology Daily

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