Red Rectangle Nebula

Also known as HD 44179, the nebula was discovered in 1973. Diffraction-limited speckle images of it in visible and near infrared light reveal a highly symmetric, compact bipolar nebula with X-shaped spikes which imply toroidal dispersion of the circumstellar material.
The central binary system is completely obscured. The distance to this object is 2300 light years.

Find a detailed image from the Hubble Space Telescope here.

Imaging details: 
RGB each 6x10m, Seeing 1-1.3 arcsec

Processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken and Johannes Schedler

Find a crop in 75/150% size below:

click for 150% size

Last modified on Thursday, 20 February 2014 20:05

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