NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly
NGC 6302 (The Butterfly Nebula) is an extremely energetic and rapidly expanding bipolar planetary nebula (PN). If the central source is a single star, then its apparent location in an H-R diagram places it among the most massive, hottest, and presumably rapidly evolving of all central stars of PNe....
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2023-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acf5ea |
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| author | Bruce Balick Lars Borchert Joel H. Kastner Adam Frank Eric Blackman Jason Nordhaus Paula Moraga Baez |
| author_facet | Bruce Balick Lars Borchert Joel H. Kastner Adam Frank Eric Blackman Jason Nordhaus Paula Moraga Baez |
| author_sort | Bruce Balick |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | NGC 6302 (The Butterfly Nebula) is an extremely energetic and rapidly expanding bipolar planetary nebula (PN). If the central source is a single star, then its apparent location in an H-R diagram places it among the most massive, hottest, and presumably rapidly evolving of all central stars of PNe. Our proper motion study of NGC 6302, based on Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 images spanning 11 yr, has uncovered at least four different pairs of uniformly expanding internal lobes ejected at various times and orientations over the past two millennia at speeds ranging from 10–600 km s ^−1 . In addition, we find a pair of collimated off-axis flows in constant motion at ∼770 ± 100 km s ^−1 within which bright [Fe ii ] feathers are conspicuous. Combining our results with those previously published, we find that the ensemble of flows has an ionized mass >0.1 M _⊙ and its kinetic energy, between 10 ^46 and 10 ^48 erg, lies at the upper end of gravity-powered PNe ejection processes such as stellar mergers or mass accretion. We assemble our results into a plausible historical timeline of ejections from the nucleus and suggest that the ejections are powered by gravitational infall. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-11T15:28:10Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-79f29a710ec94f8e85b6683805e95016 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-11T15:28:10Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj.art-79f29a710ec94f8e85b6683805e950162023-10-27T10:22:59ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572023-01-0195715410.3847/1538-4357/acf5eaNGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a ButterflyBruce Balick0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3139-3201Lars Borchert1Joel H. Kastner2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3138-8250Adam Frank3Eric Blackman4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9405-8435Jason Nordhaus5Paula Moraga Baez6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1042-235XDepartment of Astronomy, University of Washington , Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA ; balick@uw.eduDepartment of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University , Ny Munkegade 120, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark ; larseric@post.au.dkCenter for Imaging Science and Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, Rochester Institute of Technology , Rochester, NY 14623, USA ; jhk@cis.rit.eduDepartment of Physics & Astronomy, University of Rochester , Rochester, NY 14627, USA ; blackman@pas.rochester.eduDepartment of Physics & Astronomy, University of Rochester , Rochester, NY 14627, USA ; blackman@pas.rochester.eduCenter for Computational Relativity and Gravitation, Rochester Institute of Technology , Rochester, NY 14623, USA ; jtnsma@rit.edu; National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology , NY 14623, USASchool of Physics and Astronomy and Laboratory for Multiwavelength Astrophysics, Rochester Institute of Technology , USANGC 6302 (The Butterfly Nebula) is an extremely energetic and rapidly expanding bipolar planetary nebula (PN). If the central source is a single star, then its apparent location in an H-R diagram places it among the most massive, hottest, and presumably rapidly evolving of all central stars of PNe. Our proper motion study of NGC 6302, based on Hubble Space Telescope WFC3 images spanning 11 yr, has uncovered at least four different pairs of uniformly expanding internal lobes ejected at various times and orientations over the past two millennia at speeds ranging from 10–600 km s ^−1 . In addition, we find a pair of collimated off-axis flows in constant motion at ∼770 ± 100 km s ^−1 within which bright [Fe ii ] feathers are conspicuous. Combining our results with those previously published, we find that the ensemble of flows has an ionized mass >0.1 M _⊙ and its kinetic energy, between 10 ^46 and 10 ^48 erg, lies at the upper end of gravity-powered PNe ejection processes such as stellar mergers or mass accretion. We assemble our results into a plausible historical timeline of ejections from the nucleus and suggest that the ejections are powered by gravitational infall.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acf5eaPlanetary nebulaeBipolar nebulaeEjectaStellar wind bubblesShocks |
| spellingShingle | Bruce Balick Lars Borchert Joel H. Kastner Adam Frank Eric Blackman Jason Nordhaus Paula Moraga Baez NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly The Astrophysical Journal Planetary nebulae Bipolar nebulae Ejecta Stellar wind bubbles Shocks |
| title | NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly |
| title_full | NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly |
| title_fullStr | NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly |
| title_full_unstemmed | NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly |
| title_short | NGC 6302: The Tempestuous Life of a Butterfly |
| title_sort | ngc 6302 the tempestuous life of a butterfly |
| topic | Planetary nebulae Bipolar nebulae Ejecta Stellar wind bubbles Shocks |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acf5ea |
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