Astronomers make detailed recording of the Medusa nebula

With the Very Large Telescope of ESO in Chile, astronomers have the most detailed image so far of the Medusa nebula captured. The nebula is formed by an extinct star in the middle of the gas cloud.

That writes the organization on its site. The new images of the Medusa nebula are based on data from the Fors camera on the VLT. This camera is part of the Antu telescope of the VLT, and is also called the ‘Swiss army knife’ of the telescope is named because of its properties of astronomical objects in many different ways to capture. As contains the Sharply a camera for visible light, this can be used for multi-objectspectroscopie and is the instrument in the polarization of light to measure. The camera contains two 4k ccd’s with pixel size of 15µm.

The Medusa nebula, also known as Abell 21 and Sullivan 274, is located 1500 light years from the earth. The diameter of the nebula is estimated to be 4 light years, but despite this size was the quality of the images to a fraction of that of the new images. The snakes in the mist, the snake-like glowing gases in the nebula. The red glow comes from oxygen, which ends in zachtgroen. Because the gasontladingen of the extinct star with intervals to get outside, into the structures.

The nebula is in the constellation of Gemini and was discovered in 1955. The nebula is named after the Gorgo Medusa from the Greek mythology. The mythical Medusa would be the wrath of Athena have aroused, and then Athena hair of Medusa into a nest of writhing snakes changed and everyone that Medusa in the eyes would turn to stone.

Zoom in on the Medusa nebula – ESO