Skip to main content

The Very Large Telescope spots a spooky skull nebula

Just in time for Halloween, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has released an image of a spooky structure known as the Skull Nebula. This nebula, situated deep in the belly of The Whale constellation (Cetus), is located around 1,600 light-years from Earth. But the nebula is not only thematically appropriate for this weekend, but it is also notable for its unusual configuration of two closely bound stars being orbited by a third more distant star.

Captured in astounding detail by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the eerie Skull Nebula is showcased in this new image in beautiful pink and red tones. This planetary nebula, also known as NGC 246, is the first known to be associated with a pair of closely bound stars orbited by a third outer star.
Captured in astounding detail by ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), the eerie Skull Nebula is showcased in this new image in beautiful pink and red tones. This planetary nebula, also known as NGC 246, is the first known to be associated with a pair of closely bound stars orbited by a third outer star. ESO

A planetary nebula like this is formed when a star approaches the end of its life and throws off its outer layers in a dramatic explosion. These outer layers form a bubble around the star, which is reduced to a white dwarf. In the case of the Skull Nebula, the white dwarf remains at the very center of the nebula, where it also orbits around a companion star, a red dwarf. You can’t see the red dwarf in the image as it is too faint, but it is relatively close to the white dwarf, at just 500 times the distance between Earth and the sun.

In addition to this pair of stars at the heart of the nebula, there is also a third star orbiting the pair at a distance of around 1,900 times the distance between the Earth and the sun. This makes the Skull Nebula the first planetary nebula discovered with a hierarchical triple stellar system at its heart.

The image was captured using the ESO’s Very Large Telescope, which is located in the Atacama Desert in Chile. It was taken using the telescope’s FORS 2 instrument, the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph.

“This new image of the Skull Nebula intentionally captures light emitted in some narrow ranges of wavelengths — those associated with hydrogen and oxygen gas,” ESO writes. “Observations of light emitted by particular elements help reveal a wealth of information about an object’s chemical and structural compositions. This new image of the Skull Nebula highlights where NGC 246 is rich or poor in hydrogen (shown in red) and oxygen (depicted in light blue).”

Editors' Recommendations

NASA’s Roman telescope could spot Earth-like planets
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope might be grabbing all the headlines right now, but NASA has big plans for another space-based telescope too: The Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. Set to launch in 2027, Roman will survey the sky in the infrared wavelength to learn about big topics in cosmology like dark energy as well as perform a census of exoplanets. Now, NASA has shared more information about the kinds of planets that Roman could find, including the possibility it could take the first image of a Jupiter-like world.

Directly Imaging Distant Planets With a Coronagraph

Read more
Astronomers discover enormous planet in extreme, massive star system
This artist’s impression shows a close up of the planet b Centauri b, which orbits a binary system with mass at least six times that of the Sun. This is the most massive and hottest planet-hosting star system found to date. The planet is ten times as massive as Jupiter and orbits the two-star system at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun.

Astronomers have discovered a planet some previously thought to be impossible, orbiting an enormous and extremely hot star system. The planet, which orbits the two-star system b Centauri, is challenging assumptions about where planets can form.

This artist’s impression shows a close-up of the planet b Centauri b, which orbits a binary system with mass at least six times that of the Sun. This is the most massive and hottest planet-hosting star system found to date. The planet is ten times as massive as Jupiter and orbits the two-star system at 100 times the distance Jupiter orbits the Sun. ESO/L. Calçada

Read more
Small, sneaky black hole discovered outside our galaxy using new method
This artist’s impression shows a compact black hole 11 times as massive as the Sun and the five-solar-mass star orbiting it. The two objects are located in NGC 1850, a cluster of thousands of stars roughly 160 000 light-years away in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a Milky Way neighbour. The distortion of the star’s shape is due to the strong gravitational force exerted by the black hole.

A new detection method has been used to discover a small black hole outside the Milky Way, which could pave the way for the discovery of more hidden small black holes within our galaxy as well.

Very large black holes are relatively easy to detect because they give off X-rays as the matter is heated to glowing hot as it is pulled toward the black hole's event horizon. By looking for these X-rays, or for the gravitational waves given off by black hole collisions, astronomers can spot big black holes. But it's more difficult to spot smaller black holes which are comparable in mass to our sun because most of them don't give off either X-rays or gravitational waves.

Read more