back to article Space paparazzo captures bipolar butterfly

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking portrait of nebula PN M-29 – less prosaically dubbed the "Twin Jet Nebula", or "cosmic butterfly" if you're feeling particularly poetic. This bipolar nebula, which lies some 4,000 light years from Earth in the constellation Ophiuchus, has two stars at its centre. The larger …

  1. AbelSoul
    Thumb Up

    Good old Hubble

    Still producing spectacular images.

    Long may it continue.

  2. Graham Marsden
    Thumb Up

    Wow!

    Just WOW!!

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Minor pedantry, but surely if it's 4000 light years away, they were created 5200 years ago.

    1. John Robson Silver badge

      Time is relative, lunchtime doubly so.

      Since there is no universal "now" it possibly only makes sense to describe the age "as seen".

      1. Camilla Smythe
        Boffin

        "Since there is no universal "now" it possibly only makes sense to describe the age "as seen".

        Ah... but what if we chose to visit this particular spot at a 'later date' with our new light speed drive but subsequently determine, 20 years later, that the observed activity, apparently 'Only 1,200 years ago', will result in a catastrophic SuperMegaNova 2,800 years from our now....

        The 'Get out of Dodge' message arrives 20 years too late and scatters off the highly excited remaining atoms of our shiny light speed space ship and its carbonised inhabitants.

        1. Camilla Smythe
          Coat

          Ooops - Got my sums wrong..

        2. John Robson Silver badge

          If it's only a light speed drive then we're doomed - you can't transmit the message faster than the deathrays anyway.

          If it's an FTL drive then you've (probably) just invented time travel, and you can just fly back home to warn people, no need to send a message.

          1. Camilla Smythe

            If it's an FTL drive then you've (probably) just invented time travel, and you can just fly back home to warn people, no need to send a message.

            Apparently, whilst I accept I am out of my depth here, we can do nothing 'faster than light' which is why I mentioned the light speed space ship.

            Perhaps they can equip it with a Sigourney Weaver. That might work.

            1. annodomini2
              Devil

              "we can do nothing 'faster than light'"

              Currently...

            2. John Robson Silver badge

              @ Camilla - we can do nothing 'faster than light'

              Well they physics is a bit wierd - doing things (with mass) at the speed of light takes lots of infinities and is therefore deemed impossible. But if you can avoid travelling *at* that speed then the numbers become sensible again on the other side. In fact keeping your speed down might be an issue!

              Given that there are various quantum tunelling possibilities it might be possible (on a quantum level) to jump the light speed limit, but you would then have to "jump" back, in a controlled fashion. To all intents and purposes it is impossible for the forseeable future. But that's the thing about the forseeable future, it may be quite short.

    2. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

      Well yes. 1,200 years old, then, which is indeed 5,200 years here, and just what that is in dog years is anyone's guess.

      1. Naselus

        "just what that is in dog years is anyone's guess."

        36,400, surely.

        1. Lester Haines (Written by Reg staff) Gold badge

          Depends on the breed, apparently.

          1. Camilla Smythe

            Well.. obviously we have to send one out.

            It's just a bit unfortunate that my fried egg and bacon sandwich wins the Girl whilst She is saving the day and I end up as toast having lived a couple of hours longer than yourself.

            How is the timing of your disastrous recovery programme?

        2. Ian Michael Gumby

          Uhmmm maybe...

          "just what that is in dog years is anyone's guess."

          36,400, surely.

          -=-

          If you have a dog, next time at your vet's office, check the wall chart.

          The estimated 'age' of the dog, relative to human years is going to be more of a factor of the dog's size err... weight.

        3. Sarah Balfour

          I'm afraid you're barking up the wrong tree there, mate!

          …or, perhaps, you're simply barking…? The 1 dog year = 7 human years is a myth. Dogs age faster as puppies as their metabolism are faster, and slow down as they age and small dogs live a fair bit longer than larger breeds.

          So, for example, between 3 and 12 months small and medium breeds (chihuahuas, Jack Russells, dachshunds, pugs, spaniels, etc.) age around 1.25 human years per month, dropping to around 1 year a month at age 2, 0.75y at 4, and 0.5 at 8. If he lives to 20, he's ageing at 0.4y per month.

          Large breeds (Rotties, Great Danes, BMDs, Newfoundlands, GSDs, Labs, etc.) age 1m = 1y up to 12m, then 1m = 8m at 3-6yrs, 7.5m at 9-13yrs. Large breeds tend not to live much longer than that.

          Cats age much faster; a 3-month-old kitten is about 4 human years old, and a 1-year-old cat is around 15. By the time your cat is 10, he's about 60 in human years, and at 15 he's 77.

          In short, it's all to do with metabolism.

    3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      "Minor pedantry, but surely if it's 4000 light years away, they were created 5200 years ago."

      The pretty patterns, as we see them, are 1200 years old. But the light took 4000 years to get here. So they are both 1200 years old and 5200 years old. Until we looked at them, they could have been in either state. Blame Schroedinger!

  4. Camilla Smythe
    Holmes

    May one, perhaps, be the first to comment...

    "This bipolar nebula, which lies some 4,000 light years from Earth--"

    "The exposed remnant core of the moribund larger partner is what illuminates the "iridescent" gas lobes, which, based on measurements of their ongoing expansion, were created just 1,200 years ago."

    Ooops - Bugger. An Anonymous Coward got there first. Pfffft. No courage in their convictions or should they really be getting some work done rather than commenting on El Reg. Is that sound behind you the boss about to whup you upside the head?

    ... No doubt Lester does this sort of thing to amuse himself.

  5. Chemist

    Just a bit worried that if a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane what this devil might get up to.

    Great pic though.

    1. Pirate Dave Silver badge
      Pirate

      I thought a butterfly flapping its wings was how we wrote computer programs. Or am I doing it wrong?

      1. Mark 85

        Butterflies? I blew it. I thought it was the hooves of dancing unicorns. Rats... got to go re-write some programs.

  6. Pete4000uk

    Isn't space

    Amazing?

    Beauty on an epic scale

  7. Ugotta B. Kiddingme

    question

    so was this formed as the result of a nova or supernova? And if so, might it have been visible to the unaided human eye? If so, there should probably be some record. For example, both the Mayan and Arabic civilizations of that period were noted for being clever with astronomy

    1. Triple-J
      Boffin

      Re: question

      It was neither a nova nor a supernova. This particular bipolar nebula (M2-9 not M-29 actually) is a planetary nebula, formed from the end stages of a red giant as it becomes a white dwarf. One way to get the bipolar structure is if the central object is a binary star, and the outflow from the red giant wind gets channeled into lobes. "Butterfly Nebula". Harumph. When I observed it for my thesis, we called it Minkowski's Mustache. (Minkowskl being the 'M' in the object's name).

      1. Tom 7

        Re: question

        The reason behind the lobes is the star has a magnetic field and the interaction with that and the ionised gasses expelled produces lobes. The companion star merely stabilises the systems rotation*. Stars without companions can spin 'erratically' and can produce what appear to be shells.

        Google planetary nebulae and enjoy the pics...

        *well it can help with the magnetic field generation.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It looks like two penises touching each other head to head.

    1. cbars Bronze badge

      Glad to see they're wearing condoms.

      Safety first.

  9. Archie Woodnuts

    Foolish Anti-Spirals

    Clearly they don't know that Simon's drill is the drill that will pierce the heavens.

  10. Drone Pilot

    Scale?

    Could someone place the earth / our sun in that for scale. Or a box of matches?

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Scale?

      The solar system would be swallowed up in the white bit in the middle.

  11. FozzyBear
    Happy

    Hubble still able to produce the AWE factor after all these years

    However you measure it, however you name it. that is a thing of beauty.

  12. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge

    Amazing image

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Velocity

    When they talk about sterams of gas moving at 1 Milllon Km/hour I tend to wish they said that in fractions of light speed - but thats me - mines the one with the FTL drive in its pocket

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