Symbiotic Star Blows Bubbles into Space

Symbiotic Star in the Southern Crab Nebula (He2-104) Blows Bubbles into Space

A tempestuous relationship between an unlikely pair of stars may have created an oddly shaped, gaseous nebula that resembles an hourglass nestled within an hourglass. Images taken with Earth-based telescopes have shown the larger, hourglass-shaped nebula. But this picture, taken...

Southern Crab Nebula (He2-104)

The Center of the Southern Crab Nebula He2-104

Symbiotic Star Blows Bubbles into Space – Panel 1

A pulsating red giant star and a compact, hot white dwarf star orbit each other.

Symbiotic Star Blows Bubbles into Space – Panel 2

The red giant sheds much of its outer layers in a stellar wind. The white dwarf helps concentrate the wind along a thin equatorial plane. The white dwarf accretes some of this escaping gas forming a disk around the itself.

Symbiotic Star Blows Bubbles into Space – Panel 3

When enough gas accumulates on the white dwarf's surface it explodes as a nova outburst. Most of the hot gas forms a pair of expanding bubbles above and below the equatorial disk.

Symbiotic Star Blows Bubbles into Space – Panel 4

A few thousand years after the bubbles expand into space, the white dwarf goes through another nova outburst and makes another pair of bubbles, which form a distinctive hourglass shape.