WISE Captures a Glowing Cylinder in Space
NGC 1514, sometimes called the ‘Crystal Ball’ nebula shows a new double ring feature in an image from WISE. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA
It’s not like we’ve never seen the planetary nebula NGC 1514 before, but we’ve never seen it though WISE’s infrared eyes, until now. And in a stunning surprise, cylindrical rings appear to be encircling the dying star, like a neon-lit carousel, or perhaps like rolling tire surrounding a glowing blob. “I just happened to look up one of my favorite objects in our WISE catalogue and was shocked to see these odd rings,” said Michael Ressler, a member of the WISE science team at JPL. “This object has been studied for more than 200 years, but WISE shows us it still has surprises. (…) Read the rest of WISE Captures a Glowing Cylinder in Space (403 words)
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