When the smaller star merges with the other, "jets of material" can flow out and wobble, which is what researchers think is happening with the Butterfly Nebula. The way iron emissions — gas blown out at high speed by a star and captured by the Hubble camera filter — show up along opposing, off-center directions, implies that the source is wobbling over time, "like a spinning top that's about to fall," Kastner explains. "That's another telltale sign of the presence of a disk, which directs the flow, and also a binary companion." … [Read more...] about Hubble Hubble: Telescope Provides Stunning New Images of Two Planetary Nebulas
