Hubble Looks More Closely @ Ant Nebula

avandesande writes "CNN is reporting on a new ant-shaped nebula that has been discovered. The story is short, but I think that this nebula belongs in the 'top 20 cool looking things in space' list."

Comments

ah -- i remember now

[J.Random Hacker]

It is a young star called Eta Carinae.

Interesting that a dying star and an apparently new star show a similar shockwave pattern....

{searching the web}

There is a better writeup at STSci. They also mention Eta C.

Re:ah -- i remember now

[lessa]

Eta Carinae is also a dying star. It is remarkable for it large size and brightess.

Actually, the hourglass shape with a pinch in the middle seems to be the norm for
dying stars (particularly red giants blowing off layers of gas). As the article says, however,
the really interesting part is: why does a mostly spherically symmetric object like
a star produce such a directed "explosion"? The most universal answer I've heard so far
is the angular momentum one (the star is spinning with a particular axis; the explosion behaves
differently at the poles and equator). It just doesn't seem to have enough magnitude, though.

Re:why not regular?

[Steeltoe]

Chaotic != Random

In fact chaotic systems often exhibit non-random behaviour in most unexpected ways. So even though turbulent environments may look pretty unorganized, sometimes the system _seemingly_ manages to organize itself through feedback. However, the organization is ALWAYS complex. Just look at mandelbrot. At a distance it seems so simple, yet....

All in all, what may look simple in nature, is usually much more rich in details. Yet we continue to search for simple clues to interpret and simplify the world around us, because that's how our logics works.

IMHO, I believe we put ourselves in danger when we _believe_ our simplified models..

- Steeltoe