A Stellar Collision Birthed the 'Dragon's Egg' Nebula, a Puzzling Structure in the Milky Way
A Stellar Collision Birthed the ‘Dragon’s Egg’ Nebula, a Puzzling Structure in the Milky Way
The colorful cloud of gas and dust has a violent origin—and this explains the unusual traits of two massive stars within it, astronomers say
Christian Thorsberg
Daily Correspondent
April 18, 2024
A close-up of the Dragon's Egg Nebula, with two mismatched stars inside. ESO/VPHAS+ team. Acknowledgement: CASU
Some 3,800 light-years away from Earth, in the Southern Hemisphere constellation Norma, lies a massive cloud of gas and dust. Nicknamed the “Dragon’s Egg” nebula for its proximity to the Fighting Dragons of Ara nebula complex, this mysterious cosmic structure has baffled astronomers. Now, researchers have discovered new evidence to support the idea that the breathtaking purple, pink and orange orb was born from a violent past.
A stellar tango flows beautifully inside the Dragon’s Egg. Two massive stars reside, each bound by the other’s gravitational pull, but they are rather unalike. One is about 30 times more massive than the sun, magnetic and 2.7 million years old; the other is 26.6 times the sun’s mass, non-magnetic and 4.1 million years old.
These conditions—two massive stars existing within a nebula and their very different properties—are outside the norm. And at 7,500 years old, the nebula itself is much younger than both stars inside. Combined, these cosmic rarities stood out to scientists.
“When doing background reading, I was struck by how special this system seemed,” Abigail Frost, an astronomer at the European Southern Observatory (ESO), says in a statement. “It really made us feel like something cool had to have happened in this system. When looking at the data, the coolness only increased.”
More:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/a-stellar-collision-birthed-the-dragons-egg-nebula-a-puzzling-structure-in-the-milky-way-180984148/
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