A New Type of Nebula Discovered

Also known as ‘nebulae’, nebulae are the name given to dust and gas clouds in space that are formed from the gas and dust released by the stars. These structures create magnificent images and show us how beautiful structures are in the endless and dark universe.

Now, there has been a development that can be described as very important about nebulae. According to an article published in Universe Today, an international research team of scientists has discovered a new nebula around stars in the binary star category.

Discovered around binary star YY Hya

• This is what the nebula looks like on merged and edited images

The newly discovered nebula was named the ‘galactic emission nebula’. YY Hya, a ‘binary star’ consisting of two dwarf stars, was at the center of this discovery. These two stars settled in a region called the ‘gas cluster’ before transforming into a white dwarf, also described as the cold stars in the last phase of YY Hya life. Before that, however, the stars went through a stage called a red giant and dispersed the gases in their outer layers into space.

Astronomer Stefan Kimeswenger, one of the authors of the study published in Astrophysics and Astronomy, also said in his statements, “Stars swell towards the end of their lives and enter the red giant phase. This in turn affects their evolution. A gas cluster is formed in the outer part of the binary systems that experience this. However, the cores of stars within this layer do not decay; Therefore, they continue their evolution individually” and stated that a new type of nebula was observed due to this cluster.

In fact, previous studies have also yielded results on this subject. However, none of these surveys found a fully developed gas cluster like the one discovered at YY Hya.

15. 6 light-years wide

According to experts, the nebula formed by this gas cluster is 15.6 light-years wide, that is, almost 1 million times larger than the Earth’s distance from the sun. In addition, it was stated in the statements made by Kimeswenger that the discovered nebula was located close to the Milky Way, causing it to not be damaged by other gas clouds and caused it to develop.

This discovery was first made by a group of amateur German and French astronomers who studied images from 1980. This group came across a fragment of a nebula during their investigation and took their findings to experts in the field. Further investigations revealed the binary star that formed this planetary nebula.