Dragon's Egg Nebula

• 27 Apr 2024

Source: TH

Astronomers have been puzzled by a nebula, nicknamed the Dragon’s Egg, which comprises a cloud of gas and dust enveloping a binary star system.

• The Dragon’s Egg Nebula formed due to the intense stellar winds emitted by a massive, hot central star.
• One of the stars in the pair of binary stars has a magnetic field, while the other does not, which is unusual for massive stars.
• The magnetic star is about 30 times more massive than the Sun, while its companion is about 26.5 times more massive than the Sun.
• The researchers believe the system started as a triple star system about 4-6 million years ago.
• The merger of the two innermost stars ejected gas and dust into space, forming the nebula around 7,500 years ago.
• The nebula contains an unusually large amount of nitrogen due to the merger.

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