Astrophoto: The Red Rectangle in Space

By Nancy Atkinson - January 17, 2014 at 1:00 PM UTC | Stars
redrectangles.jpg

Due to gravity, most objects in space are spherical -- whether it's round planets and stars or swirling spiral galaxies. That's why this object, the Red Rectangle Nebula, or HD 44179, is so intriguing.

"The overall shape of the nebula is a puzzle for astronomers to figure out," said astronomer Adam Block from the Mount Lemmon SkyCenter at the University of Arizona, via email. "The leading theory suggests that bipolar, cone-shaped, and periodic outflows, when viewed in profile as we do, may give the shape we see. The intense red color still remains a bit of a mystery."

From most "smaller" ground based telescopes, this object really does look like a rectangle, but images from space, such as from the Hubble Space Telescope, reveal that rather than being rectangular, is shaped like an X with additional complex structures of spaced lines of glowing gas, a little like the rungs of a ladder. This stunning new image from Adam also captures these features.

He said he wanted to know what it really looked like from a ground-based telescope using full color (broad band) filters.

"I didn't know, but now I do," Adam said. "It is a tiny tiny thing; but it was wonderful to see it develop from the raw data to this rendered result. The central star is very bright and nearly overwhelms the interesting parts of the nebula. In addition to its size, the central star is a big challenge to tame."

See a larger version and find out more of the observing details

here

.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com