Hubble Catches Dying Star Spewing Out Toxic Gases

Astronomers operating the NASA Hubble Space Telescope captured a new view of an interesting dying star. They were able to establish that the celestial body is producing a toxic mix of poisonous gases as it slowly dies away.

According to the experts, this object is located at the core of what is called a protoplanetary nebula, a type of cosmic structure that has nothing to do with planets. Its name is a misnomer that was given during the 18th century, when the first such objects were discovered.

When viewed through the telescopes of the day, planetary nebulae appeared to take on the shape of giant gas planets. Those observatories could not make yet the finer details, hence the confusion.

Once a star reaches the planetary nebula phase, it become an emission nebula encircling a star in the last stages of its life. This expanding glowing shell of ionized gas is produced as the star goes through what astronomers call the asymptotic giant branch phase.

This phase take place after the stellar object passes through the red giant phase, and is on its way to becoming a white dwarf, a star that burns helium instead of hydrogen, and that cannot support nuclear fusion anymore.

The structure Hubble imaged is called the Westbrook Nebula (PK166-06, CRL 618 or AFGL 618), but this object is classified by astronomers as a protoplanetary nebula (PPN). This means that it's undergoing a phase that will see it turn into a full-blown planetary nebula soon.

By astronomical terms, PPN are very short-lived events, which only last for several hundred to a thousand years. Due to the fact that they take place so rapidly, only a handful of other PPN are known throughout the Milky Way.

In its current stage, the star at the core of the Westbrook Nebula is running out of hydrogen, and is beginning to shed the outer layers of its atmosphere. As it does so, it's also releasing a variety of very toxic gases into the surrounding environment.

Among the chemicals, scientists were able to identify carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide, which are both extremely harmful to humans. But further chemical analysis of the object is proving to be complicated, given the nature of PPN.

At this stage, they are rather cool objects, meaning that they give off little to no visible light. As such, astronomers cannot hope to use telescopes operating in visible-light wavelengths. But they can use infrared detectors to make more sense of protoplanetary nebulae.

The new image, which was collected through 4 color filters using 9-minute exposures, was snapped by the Wide Field Camera 3 instrument aboard the Hubble. It contains data taken in near-infrared wavelengths, superimposed on the faint visible light that bounces off the object, Space reports..