The Red Spider Planetary Nebula
Oh what a tangled web a
planetary nebula can weave. The Red Spider Planetary Nebula
shows the complex structure that can
result when a normal star ejects its
outer gases and becomes a
white dwarf star.
Officially tagged NGC 6537, this two-lobed symmetric
nebula houses one of the hottest white dwarfs ever observed,
probably as part of
binary star system. Internal
winds
emanating from the central stars, shown in the central
inset, have been
measured in excess of 300 kilometers per second.
These hot winds expand the nebula,
flow along the nebula's walls,
and cause gas and dust to collide.
Atoms caught in these colliding shocks radiate
light shown in the above representative-light picture.