Hubble Frames a very Unique Red Rectangle

The star HD 44179 is surrounded by a strange structure known as the Red Rectangle. It acquire its moniker because of its shape and its obvious color when seen in near the beginning images from Earth. This strikingly detailed Hubble picture reveals how, when seen from space, the nebula, rather than life form rectangular, is shaped like an X with extra complex structures of spaced lines of glowing gas, a little like the rungs of a ladder.

The star at the center is similar to the sun, but at the last part of its lifetime, pumping out gas and other material to create the nebula, and giving it the distinctive shape. It also appear that the star is a close binary that is surrounded by a dense area of dust — both of which may help to give details the very curious shape.

 The Red Rectangle is a strange example of what is recognized as a proto-planetary nebula. These are old stars, on their way to becoming planetary nebulae. Once the exclusion of mass is complete a very hot white dwarf star will stay and its brilliant ultraviolet radiation will cause the nearby gas to glow. The Red Rectangle is establish about 2,300 light-years away in the constellation Monoceros (the Unicorn).

The High Resolution Channel of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s higher Camera for Surveys captured this view of HD 44179 & the surrounding Red Rectangle nebula — the sharpest view so far. Red light from glowing Hydrogen was captured through the F658N filter and colored red. Orange-red light over a wider variety of wavelengths through a F625W filter was colored blue. The field of vision is about 25 by 20-arc seconds.