The Red Rectangle, named after its unique box shape, lies about 2,300 light-years from Earth. Located in the constellation Monoceros, the Red Rectangle was first detected by astronomers during a rocket flight in the 1970s. The US space agency NASA has meanwhile revealed unusual detail in the structure of the Red Rectangle using the Hubble Space Telescope.
The Hubble photo shows rung-like features that can easily be mistaken for a ladder or a spider web.
But the Red Rectangle is not one of those and is instead a large nebula or cloud of gas, extinct by a rising star.
NASA said: “The sharp image of Hubble shows that the Red Rectangle is not really rectangular, but has a general X-shaped structure, which astronomers interpret as being caused by outflow of gas and dust from the star in the center.
“The outflow is ejected from the star in two opposite directions, producing a shape like two ice cones at its tips.
“Also noteworthy are straight features that resemble muscles on a ladder, making the Red Rectangle resemble a cobweb, a shape unlike any other known nebula in the air.”
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The nebula is officially known as HD 44179 and its nickname was coined in 1973 by astronomers Martin Cohen and Mike Merrill.
After all, the star in the center of the nebula is equal to our Sun once.
But it is nearing the end of his life and throwing layers of stellar material out of space.
The star probably began to degrade its material about 14,000 years ago.
And in a few thousand years, the star will shrink and become hot, and in the process release large amounts of ultraviolet radiation.
The radiation will flood the surrounding nebula and it gives it a fluorescent property.
The result of this process is what astronomers refer to as planetary nebula.
NASA said: “At the moment, however, the star is still so cool that atoms in the surrounding gas do not glow, and the surrounding dust particles can only be seen because they reflect the starlight of the central star.
“In addition, there are molecules mixed with the substance, which emit light in the red part of the spectrum.
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“Astronomers are not yet sure what types of molecules produce the red color that is so striking in the Red Rectangle, but think they are hydrocarbons that form in the cool outflow of the central star.”
Thanks to the power of Hubble Telescopes, astronomers have been able to detect a dark band crossing the central star.
The band is the shadow cast by a dense disk of dust that surrounds the dying star.
The star itself can not be seen directly because of this material barrier.
Instead, astronomers can see the light of the star perpendicular to the star.
The light can then be seen as it is scattered by the dust towards us.
NASA said: “Astronomers have found that the star in the center is actually a close pair of stars orbiting each other around a circle of about 10-and-a-half months.
“Interactions between these stars probably caused the emission of the thick dust disk that obscured our view of the binary.”
